T X 



THE KITCHEN FIRE 



AND 



HOW TO RUN IT 



BY 



SAMUEL SEWARD WRIGHT 



""^No Item in the Housekeepers' Domain k. more 
reckkiuly mimianaged than the Cod Mange/' 




Class 



Book. -Q^^f 
CoipgMIJ"- 



COEXRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE KITCHEN FIRE 



AND 



HOW TO RUN IT. 



A Manual for the Housewife showing how 
to save Coal, Gas, Labor and Health 

BY 

SAMUEL SEWARD WRIGHT 



FEATURES 

ECONOMY OF FUEL 

EFFICIENCY OF STOVE 

CONVENIENCE OF OPERATION 

SAFETY AND SANITATION 






Copyright 1912 
By Samuel Seward Wright 



CCU327715 



PART 1. 

CONTENTS. 

Page 

Preface 4 

Introduction 7 

Chapter 1. Water — Air — Fire 12 

Chapter 2. Fuel—Wood— Peat, Etc 16 

Chapter 8. Oxygen the Friend of Carbon 24 

Chapter 4. Stoves — Wood^ — ^^Coal — Gas 27 

Chapter 5. Chimneys — Dampers — Drafts 34 

Chapter 6. Fuel Gases — Smoke 41 

Chapter 7. Safety and Sanitation 46 

Chapter 8. Fuel Burning — Fuel Saving 52 

Chapter 9. Super-Heated Oxygen and Fuel 

Savino- 58 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



i!5 



Pa2:e 



Fioure 1 — Cabinet Dockash Ranse 32 



Figure 2 — Transit of Gases to Chimney 39 

Figure 3 — Transit of Gases Around Oven to the 

Chimney 40 

Figure 4 — Dockash Gas Range 51 



THE KITCHEIN FIRE 



PREFACE 



The Author's conception in presenting in readable 
form the facts gathered from a decade's experience with 
questions of Fuel Economy has not been to offer the 
pubHc a scientific treatise or dissertation, but to present 
in simple every day terms a book which all housekeep- 
ers can read and understand. 

The Greatest of all Waste in the World Occurs in the 
Cooking of Food in the Nation's Kitchen. Economists 
assert that as a nation we are far more extravagant and 
wasteful in our use of the necessaries of life than the 
people of any other nation. Fuel, like food, is a neces- 
sity of life, and our profligacy in the consumption of fuel 
is even more marked and more to be deplored than our 
wastefulness in the preparation and consumption of 
food. 

The aggregate value of food consumed by ninety-three 
millions of people for three hundred and sixty-five days, 
computed at twenty-five cents per day only for each indi- 
vidual, amounts to the enormous sum of eight billions 
of dollars. The fact has been deduced after most care- 
ful and painstaking research that there is a spoilage or 
waste of ten per cent, in the cooking of food for the 
family consumption. Ten per cent, of the total value of 
the annual food consumption is eight hundred millions 
of dollars, which represents spoilage or waste. 

Cooking is the most general manufacturing business 
in our country. The money value of the output of the 
])roduct is far greater than in any other industry. The 



HOW TO RUN IT ^ 

loss in the value of the food spoiled or wasted is not the 
only loss,— great as it is in the aggregate. 

This food in the eighteen millions of homes and in the 
hotels, clubs, restaurants, etc., is cooked in stoves or 
ranges where wood, coal, gas or oil is consumed as fuel. 
It can be demonstrated that the waste of fuel is far 
greater than the ten per cent, of food waste, that is 
approximately forty or fifty per cent. 

Our annual fuel bill, shown by United States Govern- 
ment statistics, is nearly five hundred millions of dol- 
lars. Forty per cent, of this amount is two hundred mil- 
lions of dollars, which represents fuel loss or waste in 
the nation's cooking stoves. 

It is possible, therefore, to save one billion of dollars 
in each five years in fuel value by adopting and practic- 
ing correct methods of operating and maintaining the 
kitchen fire. The Author has demonstrated and observed 
demonstrations in thousands of homes, North, South, 
East and West, where, by practicing improved methods 
of maintaining fires, approximately one-half the usual 
amount of fuel consumed has been saved with more and 
better sustained heat, and greater efficiency from the 
stove has been secured. 

The kitchen stove or range is the machine used to 
produce the manufactured product, the fuel is necessary 
to supply the motive power, while the cook is the engi- 
neer or skilled mechanic who operates the machine. 
Upon him or her rests the responsibility for the success 
of the manufacturing process. 

A single quotation from a letter received by the 
Author from a far-off Northwestern state, being only 
one of hundreds received, follows: 



6 THE KITCHEN FIRE 

''If I could have had the lesson thirty-five years ago 
that I have had this week, in using and controlling the 
heat problem in the cookstove, I honestly believe that I 
could have saved in the neighborhood of one thousand 
dollars in fuel since wq went to housekeeping. I am 
astonished to think that I have lived to be over sixty 
years old and to find that I knew so little about so 
simple and yet so important a matter as the control of 
the kitchen fire." The writer of the letter is a gentle- 
man above the average in experience and intelligence, 
being an architect and builder who is successful in his 
vocation. 

Having made the diagnosis, located the trouble, and 
prescribed the remedy, the Author submits this produc- 
tion to the consideration of an interested public with the 
hope that the information furnished between the covers 
of this small volume may be put to the practical test in 
order to secure the comforts and conveniences certain 
to follow. 

SAMUEL SFAVARD WRTG?IT. 



HOW TO RUN IT 



INTRODUCTION 



FLAME. 

In modern civilization, after Air, Water and Food, 
nothing is more important than Fire, to the happiness 
and prosperity of the human race. If all present knowl- 
edge of artificial means of producing- fire were obliter. 
ated and not rediscovered, civilization would relapse into 
barbarism Business could not be transacted, railroads 
and steamboat lines could not be operated, manufactories 
would close, our homes would become desolate without 
heat and light, and chaos would reign supreme. 

Those heroes of invention, whoever they were, who 
first kindled flame, did more for human welfare than any 
who have succeeded them, for it was their success that 
has made all progress possible. 

WHAT IS FLAME? 

The flame of a fire is really nothing at all. It is not 
what ancient Greeks thought, an element like air, water 
or earth. But the early Greeks did not understand that 
air water and earth were not in themselves elements, 
but a mixture or compound of elements, for air is now 
known to be composed of a mixture of two elements- 
two gases-known as Oxygen and Nitrogen: that water 
is a compound of two gases known as Oxygen and 
Hydrogen, and that earth is a mixture of many gases 
and solids— all being simple elements. 

All the gaseous and solid elements are known as 
matter-substance-something that can be weighed, 



8 THE KITCHEN FIRE 

measured, seen, felt or tasted, and which may be utilized 
in some form for human needs. 

The flame is not an element of different kind or nature. 
It is simply what the elements — the gases look like when 
they are burning and glowing under the influence of heat. 

WHY IS FIRE HOT? 

Heat comes from Carbon, which is mostly the solid 
part of Coal, Wood or other fuels, and the Oxygen of 
the air. A wonderful amount of power and energy is 
stored lying dormant in Carbon and Oxygen. 

When flame — fire — is applied to a union of Carbon 
and Oxygen the wonderful energy locked up in both is 
released, becomes active, shows itself in rapid motion, 
communicates itself to the surrounding air, making it 
hot, and continues to move, producing radiant heat. 

WHAT IS CARBON? 

Carbon is a solid lying in mass in the earth, being 
stored there for ages for the use of mankind in the form 
of mineral like coal, or in liquid form like petroleum, 
or as the so-called natural gas. All vegetation spring- 
ing from the earth is composed largely of carbonaceous 
matter. Nature has stored immense quantities of car- 
bon in our forests, upon which our ancestors have drawn 
for their fuel necessities until our nation's wood supply 
has become seriously depleted. 

FUEL AND ITS KINDS. 

Fuel is the name give to any material which may be 
burned for domestic purposes, or in the arts or sciences. 
It appears in many different forms and under many dif- 



HOW TO RUN IT 9 

ferent names, and for convenience will be classified as 
follows : 

First — Solid fuels, including wood, charcoal, peat, coal 
and coke. 

Second — Liquid fuels, including petroleum, tar, etc. 

Third — Gaseous fuels, including coal gas, oil gas, pro- 
ducer gas and water gas. 

The value of any of the fuels named depends upon the 
amount of Carbon stored in the substance and the 
quantity of heat that may be generated when it is sub- 
jected to the high temperature of flame or fire. 

The nature and composition of the more prevalent 
fuels will be treated in following chapters. 

BURNING FUEL IN STOVES AND RANGES. 

There is a right way and a wrong way of burning fuel 
in stoves and ranges. The right way is to burn it with 
as little consumption of fuel as possible, to secure the 
desired volume of heat, and to burn it in a sanitary and 
healthful way, which is, or should be, the first con- 
sideration. Also, it should be burned in a manner con- 
ducive to the safety of the home and the lives of its 
inmates. The right way to burn fuel is to burn as little 
Carbon, which costs dollars, and as much Oxygen as 
possible, which is .free, and can be had without expense. 

The wrong way is the common or ordinary manner in 
which stoves are operated in nearly all families. The 
most simple principles of correct burning, proper opera- 
tion of the stove and management of the fire are gener-- 
ally disregarded. This condition is well nigh universal, 
and as a result nearly twice as many dollars are expend- 
ed in the average family for fuel as i s necessary. 



10 THE KITCHEN FIRE 

This book is written with the purpose of supplying cor- 
rect and needed information on the care and mainten- 
ance of the kitchen fire, and a consecutive reading of its 
several chapters will furnish such information. 

WHERE THE WASTE GOES. 

Fuel is wasted or lost in two ways. Its burning is 
often so incomplete and imperfect that large quantities 
of Carbon are found in the ash box in the form of 
cinders and clinkers, which are sometimes reclaimed by 
sifting of the ashes. A great loss occurs through the 
smoke pipe and chimney as, if the fire be not properly 
controlled, many of the gases after being generated in 
the fire are allowed to escape through the smoke pipe 
and chimney before the process of burning has been 
completed. Losses in both directions — the ash box and 
the chimney — may be almost wholly obviated or reduced 
to a minimum by acquiring correct information concern-, 
ing the use of drafts and dampers, which will also be 
discussed in other parts of this book. 

SMOKE PIPE AND CHIMNEY. 

The smoke pipe which connects the stove or range to 
the chimney flue is a very important feature of the 
kitchen heating system, but its importance is frequently 
overlooked, and stoves and fire troubles are endured 
which might be readily obviated. The proper flue con- 
nection is very important, and the course the smoke 
pipe must take from the stove to the chimney is often 
susceptible to change with most beneficial results. The 
chimney and its flues are a study in themselves and their 
correct understanding and care of much consequence. 



HOW TO iRUN IT 11 

HOW TO BURN FUEL PROPERLY. 

The proper manipulation of a stove or range is not 
at all difficult or irksome where conditions are favorable 
for satisfactory fuel burning. The practical manage- 
ment of the stove and fire will be discussed in all its 
detail, and any reader who has unusual or peculiar prob- 
lems to be solved is invited to communicate with the 
Author by letter. 

NEW ACCESSORIES TO STOVES. 

Since the great coal strike in 1902 more attention has 
been paid by writers and inventors to Fuel Saving Prob- 
lems. Many devices have been invented to be used as 
accessories to coal and gas ranges and heating stoves. 
Some have actual merit — others are worthless. A brief 
description of some of them and the principles involved 
will appear at the end of Part Second, which is devoted 
to practical application of the information herein sub- 
mitted. 



12 _ THE KITCHEN FIRE 

CHAPTER I. 

WATER— AIR— FIRE. 

Well informed people frequently express their sur- 
prise that the general public remains so illy informed 
concerning the important yet very simple matters of 
everyday life. How few can explain that the most 
prevalent liquid known — Water — is a combination in 
certain exact proportions of two most prevalent gases, 
viz., Oxygen and Hydrogen, or that the atmospheric air 
which we must continue to breathe in order to exist is a 
mixture in other certain fixed proportions of Oxygen 
and Nitrogen. All know that water and air are supers 
abundant — co-existing in all regions of the earth, and 
that both are essential to human and animal existence. 

The air we breathe being all prevalent, provided for 
all His creatures — human and animal — by an All- Wise 
Creator, costs not a penny. Water being a liquid instead 
of a gas like air, is more controllable, more easily mobil- 
ized, and in densely populated communities is controlled 
by a few individuals, and through artificial means is 
made a commodity and sold for money to the general 
public. 

The housekeeper who pays his dollars for the water 
his family must consume, provides ways and means for 
controlling and conserving its waste by using meters, 
faucets and other necessary devices so that fewer of his 
dollars shall find their way into the cofifers of the muni- 
cipality or company who has the water to sell. 

By similar means the supply and waste of light, either 
gas, oil or electricity are controlled, for light, like water, 
has become a commodity and must be purchased, and is 
therefore a fixed charge upon the income of every family. 



HOW TO RUN IT 13 

FIRE. 

Likewise all know that heat is produced by fire, that 
coal, wood and other fuel when ignited will burn and 
generate heat, and that draft so-called — air— is necessary 
to cause a hre to burn before heat can be evolved or 
produced. All are familiar with the phenomena of fire 
— its uses and purposes — but what the actual process is 
in transforming wood or coal into heat remains to them 
in the category of the unknown. 

Nothing is commoner, nothing is more necessary to 
civilization than Fire, which was to prehistoric man a 
luxury both costly and precarious. Before man knew 
how to produce fire he observed fire coming from nat- 
ural sources, like volcanoes, oil wells burning like those 
on the shores of the Caspian Sea, which have flamed or 
smouldered for centuries. He must have observed a 
tree set afire by the lightning stroke, a meteorite setting 
fire to leaves and underbrush, a storm driving the stems 
of a bamboo groove against each other imtil fric- 
tion excited flame. He, no doubt, saw fire from such 
causes sweep through forests, burning animals and 
birds, and his first knowledge of cooking might have 
been gained from a feast of the flesh of such primitive 
cooking. 

ARTIFICIAL FIRE. 

How and when man first produced flame and fire by 
artificial agencies will never be revealed. The rubbing 
of sticks of wood together until flame was produced is 
probably the oldest known method. Then pieces of 
stone or other mineral were doubtless employed. Cen- 
turies passed before man knew how to strike the cheap 
plktsphorous match which was perfected as recently as 



14 TPTE KITOT-TEN FIRE 

1840. In fact, not until the principles of chemistry be- 
came understood was man able to produce and control 
flame at will. 

The actual process of burning or combustion was not 
known until the latter part of the Eighteenth Century. 
It was then discovered that atmospheric air is composed 
of two gases instead of one — Oxygen and Nitrogen — the 
proportion being one-'lifth Oxygen and four-fifths Nitro- 
gen. It was also discovered that Nitrogen is an inert 
gas without definite qualiiy, that Oxygen is essential to 
the existence of all humans and animals, and that with- 
out a sufficient supply of Oxygen a fire cannot burn. 

Therefore a fire is primarily a union of two elements. 
Oxygen and the substance to be burned, which may be 
either solid, liquid or gaseous, and is called Carbon. The 
Oxygen and Carbon must be brought together in proper 
proportion and placed under ignition before a fire, which 
produces light and heat, can burn. By ignition we mean 
producing a flame, and the flame is gas in process of 
burning. 

As pure water is composed in certain exact proportion 
of Oxygen and Hydrogen, and pure air is composed of 
Oxygen and Nitrogen in exact proportion, so in order 
to effect in a fire proper or economical combustion or 
burning of the substance to be burned, there must be 
preserved the necessary proportion of Oxygen and 
Carbon. 

It is because of the lamentable general lack of knowl- 
edge by men and women of the principles and facts be- 
fore stated, that such great trouble. and annoyance is so 
often experienced in maintaining the kitchen and other 
fires, and which results in the enormous waste of expen- 
sive fuel. 



HOW TO RUN IT 15 

Fire — combustion — is a simple chemical process. Cer- 
tain elements must be combined in certain quantities 
under certain conditions — the Oxygen of the air and the 
Carbon of the fuel— before a satisfactory or economical 
fire can be maintained. The druggist, in compounding 
prescriptions, must mix the several ingredients in proper 
proportion and under certain conditions, else the mixture 
will be useless and fail of its purpose. The housewife, 
in mixing bread or cake for baking, must combine in cer- 
tain proportion, by weight or measure, the flour, water, 
salt, sugar, butter and other ingredients, for if not prop- 
erly mixed or combined — no matter how well baked — 
the food will be neither palatable nor wholesome. 

Every kitchen is a laboratory, and every cook, un- 
consciously though it may be, practices or uses the 
arts or knowledge of the chemist in her daily avocation. 
Even the wash woman in her use of water, in the use 
of soda, bluing, and in the preparation of starch and in 
other ways, makes use of the principles of chemistry. 

If the housewife, cook or maid, exercised the same dili- 
gence and painstaking care in the operation or control 
of the kitchen fire that must be given to successful cook- 
ing and baking and other kitchen work, fire and stove 
troubles would largely vanish, economy in the use of fuel 
would take the place of extravagance and waste, and the 
labor involved be greatly diminished. 

While economy is very important in our domestic 
afifairs, sanitary conditions and practice are of greater 
importance. The kitchen fire uncontrolled and misman- 
aged too often is a menace to the health and lives of our 
families. 11iis feature will be treated in a plain, thiM'ough 
and practical manner in the other portions of this book. 



16 THE KITOHEIN FIRE 

CHAPTER II 

FUEL. 

The more important fuels burned for domestic pur- 
poses in kitchens and homes include wood, peat, lignite, 
coal and gas. All are stored in greater or lesser quanti- 
ties with Carbon, which is the combustible material. 
Combustible means that which will burn when flame is 
applied. The higher the proportion of Carbon in the 
fuel, the greater its heat-giving quality, and therefore the 
greater its money value. 

WOOD. 

Hard woods include heavy, compact woods like oak, 
hickory, beech, birch, elm, ash, maple and walnut. 

Soft woods include pine, hemlock, poplar, willow, and 
many others. 

Freshly chopped green wood, either hard or soft, con- 
tains about forty-five per cent, of moisture, often more, 
and sometimes less. Even dry wood contains moisture 
of about twenty per cent. It is plain, therefore, that dry 
wood will burn more readily than greeij wood, for the 
great amount of moisture in green wood must be ex- 
pelled before the carbon in the wood can be burned, and 
it requires a great deal of heat to first expel the mois- 
ture. For this reason it is not economical to burn wood 
until it has become well seasoned. 

Wood contains- only fifty per cent, or less of Carbon, 
while the best of anthracite coal contains as much as 
ninety-eight per cent. The residue or ash from wood is 
less than two per cent., while the ash or earthy matter 
of anthracite coal varies from three to four per cent. 



HOW TO RUiN' IT 17 

WOOD BECOMING SCARCE. 

When the Government of the United States was estab- 
lished about one hundred and twenty-five years ago, no 
coal had been discovered, and the forest seemed destined 
to provide wood fuel sufficient for the nation's need for 
centuries, but the wonderful increase and activity of our 
population and the wanton destruction and waste of the 
forests long since greatly depleted this source of our fuel 
supply, and to such an extent that the more populous 
[^".astern Section and many portions of the Middle West 
and South no longer consume wood for domestic pur- 
poses because of its scarcity and consequent high price, 
except it may be in certain localities where the agricul- 
tural po[)ulation prevails. 

Notwithstanding the serious depletion of our forest 
lands, our wood fuel consumed for domestic purposes 
annually reaches in value the great sum of two hundred 
and fifty millions of dollars, as shown by the Bureau of 
Statistics of the United States Government. 

At the present rate of increase of population and the 
present rate of wood consumption per capita, only a few 
decades will suffice to exhaust the present supply, and 
wood as fuel will no longer be available in any section 
of our country. 

PEAT. 

Immense deposits of peat exist in the United States 
and in other parts of the world. It is called turf in Ire- 
land and has been burned for fuel in that and other coun- 
tries for a long period. It consists of vegetable matter 
deposited in swampy ground, and important geological 
changes in its formation are still progressing. Very 
little use has been made of peat in this country yet, 



18 THE KJTOllKN FIKE 

owinj^ to the a])Undance, cheapness and superior heating 
quality of coal. In European countries it is used for 
other than domestic purposes also. 

LIGNITE. 

This is classed among mineral coals being inferior to 
bituminous coal, yielding only moderate heat. Exten- 
sive deposits exist in the territory west of the Mississippi 
river and its use thus far has been limited, but as -that 
territory becomes developed it will become of greater 
importance as a fuel for domestic consumption. Lignite 
can be coked, though the product is not of good quality. 
It is lower in its carbon than most of the soft coals, but 
contains more water and gaseous matter. It crumbles 
rapidly when exposed to the weather, and as a fuel must 
be used in its natural state and near where it is mined 
to obtain the best results. 

COAL. 

Coal is classified as Anthracite, or hard coal, and Bitu- 
minous, or soft coal. The anthracite varies in degrees 
of hardness, and hard coal that contains as much as seven 
or eight per cent, of volatile or gaseous matter is known 
as semi-anthracite, ijecausc of this gaseous matter the 
semi-anthracite kindles in(»re (juickly and burns more 
rapidly than the hard anthracite. 

When coal contains as much as eighteen or twenty 
per cent, of volatile matter that is changed into gas when 
flame or fire is applied, it is called bituminous or soft 
coal. Other coals of the soft kinds are known as coking 
coal?, from which coke is produced. The process is to 
drive off the volatile or gaseous portion of the coal, leav- 
ing the solid carbon, which is called coke. It is used 



HOW TO 'RUN IT ^'"^ 

largely for melting iron in furnaces, for it yields intense 
heat and burns freely under a strong blast of air. 

Bituminous coal, under another process, furnishes illu^ 
minating gas, and coke is also the residue of the solid 
carbon, but it is not so hard and more easily ignited 
than the preceding coke. This coke is largely used in 
some sections for domestic fuel with excellent results. 
It burns freely and with intense heat. 

Bituminous coal is more generally used in manufactur- 
ing and transportation enterprises because it is more free 
burning than anthracite, and steam can be produced more 
quickly than by using the slower burning anthracite. It 
is used, however, in a large section of the country for 
domestic purposes in kitchens and homes. It is not as 
convenient to handle as the solid anthracite, and having 
a much larger proportion of volatile or gaseous matter, 
burns with more smoke and is not, therefore, so desir- 
able for domestic use. 

Bituminous coal analysis is as follows: 

Solid Carbon from fifty to eighty-four per cent. 

Volatile matter— gaseous— from twelve to forty-eight 
per cent. 

Earthy matter -ash— from two to twenty per cent. 

Sulphur from one to tliree per cent. 

The deposits of bituminous coal in the region west of 
the Allegheny Mountains and extending to some distance 
west of the Mississippi River and in Southern and South- 
western states seem almost inexhaustible. 

ANTHRACITE COAL 

Being richer in carbon, more compact than all others, 
and almost free from the light, volatile gas, and having 



20 THE KITOHEIN FIRE 

SO little earthy matter, anthracite is the ideal coal for 
kitchen use. 

It frequently contains as much as ninety-five per cent, 
of carbon. Being so free from volatile gas, it is also more 
sanitary to burn, and although kindling slowly it can be 
burned slowly and a fire retained much longer than with 
the other coal fuels or wood. It also burns to a fine 
ash and without smoke. 

BRIQUETTES. 

This is a new fuel to the American public, although 
briquettes have been made, sold and consumed both for 
manufacturing and domestic use in the principal Euro- 
pean countries for seventy years. Germany alone pro- 
duced in 1908 mor^ than eighteen million tons. 

Briquettes are made by a patented process from the 
fine particles of anthracite coal known as culm, which is 
practically solid carbon, all slate or bony matter so often 
found in the prepared domestic sizes of anthra- 
cite being removed. It is carefully washed to re- 
move dirt and other foreign matter and dried, 
after which it is mixed in order to hold the fine 
particles together with a binder of coal tar or pitch, 
which is distilled as one of the by-products of bituminous 
or soft coal in the manufacture of coke. It is then sub- 
jected to extreme heat and severe pressure and formed 
into sizes corresponding to either chestnut or the larger 
sizes of anthracite coal, and when cooled they result in a 
hard product which can be transported without breakage. 

The pitch used consists of fifty-tseven per cent, of car- 
bon (pure coal) and forty-three per cent, of volatile or 
easeous matter. 



HlOW TO RUN IT .21 

As a fuel it ignites more quickly, burns with greater 
freedom and gives more heat than anthracite coal, from 
which it is made. It also burns to a fine ash and without 
clinkers, and is, therefore an economical fuel. 

The Scranton Anthracite Briquette Company has 
already manufactured and sold more than 500,000 tons of 
briquettes. Possessing so many of the qualities of an 
ideal fuel, anthracite briquettes seem destined to become 
one of the leading fuels 'in the future. 

FUEL WASTE. 

The deposit of hard, or anthracite coal, which is far 
more desirable than soft coal for domestic use, exists 
only in a few counties in Eastern Pennsylvania, and so 
rapidly has this most valuable fuel been mined and 
wasted in mining and consumed, that its supply, like 
that of wood, is already seriously depleted. Because of 
the increasing difficulty and expense of mining, and the 
certain ultimate exhaustion of the product, the tendency 
of the price of anthracite per ton is and will continue 
upward as the price of wood per cord is already in most 
sections prohibitive. 

As the two fuels named cannot now be purchased for 
a less price per ton or cord, and in all probability they 
will ultimately be doubled in cost, it certainly behooves 
the prudent consumer to learn how to utilize all the heat 
units in the fuel to the end that the annual luel expense 
may be greatly reduced. 

Concerning economy in the use of tlie three necessities 
of life — Food, Clothing and Fuel — there is a notable dif- 
ference or distinction. An individual or a family cannot 
economize or lessen food cost or expense except by eating 
less food or food of a cheaper price or poorer quality. 



22 ' THE KITCHEN FIRE 

Likewise with clothing expense, less clothing must be 
purchased or clothing of a cheaper price. A family may, 
however, greatly decrease fuel expense without sacrific- 
ing any of the volume of heat or any of the comforts and 
conveniences at present enjoyed. 

i\nother reason other than saving fuel — which costs 
money — for the welfare of the present generation, should 
prompt all to practice fuel conservation. It is for the 
welfare of those who will follow us — our children and 
childrens' children — our posterity. When food is pur- 
chased it is consumed, of course, but more food is pro- 
duced — grown — each and every year. The fields bring 
forth their annual crops of divers kinds. The animals 
are fattened on the herbage of the fields and nature per- 
ennially provides subsistence for mankind. The cotton 
plant, and skins and wools of animals, and other pro- 
visions of nature supply our needs for clothing. 

But when a ton of coal is mined and burned it is 
totally lost — destroyed — and cannot be replaced from 
year to year by the chemical action induced by the copi- 
ous rain of Heaven filtering through the fertile soil of 
Mother Earth. 

For this reason the wanton waste of fuel is more de- 
plorable — a waste that will not be restored by natural 
forces — than the waste of the other necessities of life 
or of any luxury. 

It is easy of demonstration that from one-third to one- 
half — frequently a greater quantity — of coal consumed is 
needlessly burned, and if that one-half or one-third has a 
money value of one dollar per week, it would be no more 
reckless, foolish or extravagant to throw the dollar in 
the fire at the beginning or end of every week than to 
throw its value from the coal pail into the fire day by 



HiOW TO RUN IT 23 

day. The loss, measured in dollars, is the same in either 
event, but when one-third of the fuel is needlessly thrown 
into the tire the time and effort spent in handling that 
one-third unnecessarily is also lost. 

It follows, therefore, that a housekeeper who would 
burn the money weekly, and learn to save one-third or 
more of fuel, would actually practice economy of time 
and labor and secure other benefits which can readily be 
named. 

How to burn fuel economically and in a healthful man- 
ner will be ])resented in Part Two. 



24 THE KITOHEiN FIRE 

CHAPTER III. 

OXYGEN THE FRIEND OF CARBON 

It has already been shown that fire is the result of a 
union of the elements of Oxygen and Carbon exposed to 
the heat of flame. Each is as important as the other, and 
without both the Oxygen Gas and the solid Carbon no 
fire could be produced. Oxygen is just as essential in 
producing and maintaining fire as it is to the existence of 
all plant and animal life. The source of Oxygen is the 
atmosphere. One-fifth part of the air is Oxygen. Eight- 
ninths of water is Oxygen, and it is found in lesser quan- 
tity in the earth. It also exists in all the fuels, particu- 
larly wood, in greater or less degree. Oxygen, when 
pure, is colorless, tasteless and without odor. Oxygen 
has weight, and is about one-tenth heavier than atmo- 
spheric air, of which it is a part. It is the most abundant 
of all the elements. 

Oxygen in science is called a supporter of combustion, 
which means it is necessary in order" to burn carbon — 
fuel — to have present a constant supply of Oxygen. Oxy- 
gen can be separated from air. The remaining four- 
fifths of air is called Nitrogen. If pure Oxygen is con- 
fined in a jar and a piece of burning iron is placed in it, 
the iron will be entirely consumed. If pure Oxygen with- 
out its companion. Nitrogen, were supplied to a fire of 
any of the ordinary solid fuels, the grate itself would be 
burned, because it would be more combustible than 
either coal or wood. 

Man himself could not exist very long if he were com- 
pelled to breathe only pure Oxygen, for he would be so 
stimulated that he would lose control of all his vital 
organs and senses. 



HOW TO RUN IT 25 

It is well known that Oxygen is often administered to 
very sick people, but only temporarily with beneficial 
results. 

It will be readily understood, then, how very valuable 
and important a factor Oxygen is in the process of pro- 
ducing heat from burning any of the carbon fuels, either 
coal, wood or gas. 

NITROGEN. 

Both in volume occupying space and by weight. Nitro- 
gen is the principal constituent of the air. It is without 
color, taste or smell in its natural state, and is slightly 
less in weight than air. It does not support combustion 
of fuel like Oxygen. It will not burn, no matter to what 
extreme heat it may be subjected. It simply occupies 
space and does not change in form. If Nitrogen only is 
supplied to burning fuel without its companion, Oxygen, 
the fire will immediately die, just as all animals and 
humans would die if they only inhaled Nitrogen. It does 
not dissolve in water. In the atmosphere it is like a 
diluent. It dilutes air, lowers it down, and makes it 
moderate and useful for us. 

Nitrogen is an active element, but a very safe one. It 
carries away and dispenses poisonous fumes of any kind 
through the atmosphere until they find place where they 
are needed to perform some important purpose for the 
good of mankind. 

Nitrogen performs the important function in the proc- 
ess of burning fuel in stoves, of carrying away through 
the smoke pipe and chimney the fuel gases, which will 
not burn at the rate of from three feet to ten feet per 
second. It thus assists to produce draft .'^o necessary 
to proper fuel burning. 



26 THE KITCHEN EIRE 

HYDROGEN. 

This gas is the lightest substance known, but performs 
an important part in fuel burning in stoves and ranges. 
Like Oxygen and Nitrogen, it is also, when pure, color- 
less, tasteless and without odor. It is not found in a 
free state, and although it is one-ninth part of pure water, 
it may be separated from the Oxygen, but not without 
much trouble and effort. Pure Hydrogen burns with a 
faint blue light, but gives off intense heat. In fact. 
Hydrogen is the best fuel known. It gives off more heat 
than by burning any other substance. Hydrogen is 
found in varying quantities in all the fuels — the greatest 
in the oils and gases. 

The three gases, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Hydrogen, are 
most important elements in the phenomena of fire as 
well as in human existence. All are colorless, tasteless 
and odorless in their natural state. We are continually 
inhaling and swallowing them with benefit instead of 
injury. Unlike some of the fuel gases, they have no dan- 
gerous quality. Their practical use in burning fuel will 
be described in the following pages. 



HOW TO RUN IT 27 

CHAPTER IV. 

STOVES— WOOD— COAL— GAS. 

It would require a volume of hundreds of pages to 
describe the immense number and variety of stoves the 
ingenuity of man has constructed during the past five 
centuries in Europe and the United States. It requires 
but little speculation and imagination on the part of the 
reader to conclude that stoves were designed to super- 
sede fireplaces because less fuel is required where it is 
ignited and burned when inclosed than when ii is burned 
in the open atmosphere, and less air is required in 
the process of burning. The first stoves used in Europe 
were made in France about the time that Columbus dis- 
covered America, and in Holland later. The Holland 
stove came much later and was small and of the box 
shape, and being used only in the milder climates, was 
designed for wood fuel and moderate fires. In the colder 
countries of Russia and Sweden larger stoves and greater 
heat were required, and they were constructed of iron 
and brick. Neither of the patterns mentioned became 
popular in England because of the prejudice of the peo- 
ple in favor of open fires, wiiich also furnished light as 
well as heat. The first receptacle for fire known to have 
been made in America was cast in Lynn, Mass., soon 
after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The exact 
date is said to be 1642. It is not a stove, but a small 
round bottomed kettle with a cover. 

It was a little more than one hundred years thereafter 
that Benjamin Franklin, in 1745, invented what he called 
the Franklin Stove, or Pennsylvania Fire Place, which 
was more of a fireplace or a hot air furnace than a stove. 
It was not designed for cooking but for heating purposes 



28 THE KITCHEN PIKE 

and for the consumption of wood as fuel, no coal having 
then been discovered in America. 

The Franklin Stove was a great improvement in heat- 
ing devices, and the Governor of the State of Pennsyl- 
vania offered Franklin a patent for the control of the 
manufacture and sale of his invention. This Franklin 
refused on the ground that the improvement being for 
the public benefit it would not be right to deprive the 
public of any of the benefits of the invention. 

Franklin understood how necessary it is to control the 
amount of air to be supplied to the burning wood and he 
also knew the necessity of controlling the exit of the 
smoke and the other waste products of combustion 
through the chimney. He provided ways and means of 
ingress and egress of air with the purpose of saving fuel. 
He provided what he called a Register, but which was a 
flue or pipe damper and which he directed should be used 
to control the draft so that so much heat should not be 
lost through the chimney. He was thus able to demon- 
strate that large quantities of wood could be saved and 
more and better sustained heat had by properly controll- 
ing the ingress and egress of air. 

At that time Priestly had not discovered that air was 
composed of two gases — Oxygen and Nitrogen — and 
Franklin did not understand the composition of fuels, 
but he early recognized that the quantity of air necessary 
to a proper and economical burning of the fuel is limited 
and therefore should be controlled. 

In 1771, and later, Franklin invented other stoves — 
one for burning bituminous coal which would consume 
its own smoke and had a downward draft, and another 
intended for the same purpose having a basket grate 
with movable bars at the top and bottom. After being 



mow TO RUN IT 



29 



filled and kindled at the top, it could be inverted and 
made to burn from the base. Franklin was one of the 
first manufacturers of stoves in America, and he wrote 
an elaborate treatise for public use, which was widely 
distributed, teaching housekeepers the general principles 
of fire control and the consequent fuel saving, lie tried 
to educate those who purchased his stove how to get the 
full benefit from their money investment. 

In 1786 heating stoves of box shape were made in 
Philadelphia and were shipped to Providence, R. P, and 
Troy, N. Y., where they were put together and sold in 
the trade. 

From 1795 to 1825 no material progress was made in 
the construction of stoves. Wood was universally used 
for fuel till about 1830. Anthracite coal created a great 
revolution in stove construction. In 1833 Mott demon- 
strated that anthracite fire could be maintained in stoves 
with nut and pea sizes of coal, and a little later President 
Nott, of Union College, burned anthracite in heating 
stoves. 

STOVE CONSTRUCTION 

"There have been no important changes in cook stove 
construction," says Jeremiah Dwyer, President of the 
Michigan Stove Company, Detroit, Mich., "since that 
date (1850). Minor changes have been made to increase 
sales, such as Filley's Gauge Door, his return flue con- 
struction, the various arrangements of reservoirs and 
grates, the methods of oven ventilation and Buck's Stove 
Company's brilliant glass and enameled oven doors. 
Ranges as they are now called are each year more gen- 
erally made with one door and the pipe on the side 
where tlie other door was formerly. The only change 



30 T[TE KITCIIBN WUIV] 

in ten years has been in ornamentation, the substitution 
of aluminum for tin in the lining of the oven door and 
there has been a general reduction in price, while the 
cost of manufacturing has increased." 

It will be observed that the eminent authority makes 
no claim that the modern cooking stove or range is more 
economical in its consumption of fuel than was the old- 
time cooking stove used in our grandfather's day. The 
same general method of producing heat in stoves con- 
tinues as it was fifty or sixty years ago. 

At the present time there are two general classes of 
stoves manufactured and sold for domestic purposes, 
viz., cooking stoves and heating stoves, in which char- 
coal, coal, wood or coke, oil or gas are consumed as fuel. 

According to the particular kind of fuel to be burned 
they are known as wood stoves, coal stoves, gas stoves 
or oil stoves. The wood stove has been supplanted very 
largely in the large cities by the coal stove or range, 
whereas at the present time the oil or gas stoves prin- 
cipally used for cooking purposes are coming into more 
popular use at the expense of the coal range. This con- 
dition exists very largely for the reason that manufac- 
turers of coal and wood stoves and producers of the coal 
fuel are allowing themselves to be outstripped by their 
more enterprising competitor^; for public patronage — 
the manufacturers and distributors of the gas fuel. The 
manufacturer of gas teaches housekeepers how to burn 
gas cheaply by properly operating the gas stove. He 
shows its convenience and apparent cheapness, etc., by 
circulating printed matter and giving free public and 
even private demonstrations. This is in striking con- 
trast to the supine indifference of the stove manufac- 
turer, the stove dealer and the coal operator or dealer 



.HOW TO RUN IT 31 

who could (lemoiistrate that coal is a cheaper fuel when 
properly burned than gas or oil, that death or sickness 
always lurks in the shadow of the gas range because 
one-third of the gas is composed of the deadly Carbonic 
Oxide. 

Cooking stoves and ranges consuming coal, wood or 
coke as fuel are consiructed along the same general 
lines, although they may be different in shape, size 
weight of casting and in features of general convenience 
and comfort. All have grates, fire box linings of brick 
or metal, ash pit or receiver of ashes, lids and center 
pieces, the supporters of lids, ovens, doors, slide drafts, 
dampers and other parts, yet all may vary in construc- 
tion and still perform ihe general purpose for which 
they are constructed. Some ranges have reservoirs for 
containing and heating water, which is accomplished 
by the heat which is diverted around the oven. In other 
cases ranges are equipped with the accessory of what 
is known as the Water Back, which is attached to the 
fire box, pipes being connected with an upright boiler 
standing near the stove and the water circulating 
through the pipes in the fire box is heated to the boiling 
point. Many other features could be mentioned, but the 
public has general knowledge concerning them. It is 
for tlie housekeeper to understand the advantages and 
disadvantages of the respective -fuels it is within her 
convenience to use — wliich machines arc better suited 
to her kitchen conditions and how to operate such ma- 
chines at least expense consistent with the needed 
requirements and in a safe and sanitary manner, thereby 
being certain to conserve the life and health of herself 
and those entrusted to her care and protection. 



32 



THE KITCHEN FIRE 



THE CABINET DOCKASH RANGE. 




The above is an excellent type of the modern coal or 
wood kitchen range. The Dockash grate is easily oper- 
ated and the fire box is constructed on scientific princi- 
ples, has large capacity and is cemented tightly so that 
no cold air enters the fire box. The fuel can be changed 
from coal to wood instantly. It is supplied with the 
Hypocaust Oven, which is ventilated, and food roasted 



HOW TO RUN IT 



or baked in this oven loses but Httle in shrinkage, has 
better quality, while less time is required for the baking. 
It is also furnished with gas attachments. It is manu- 
factured by The Scranton Stove Works, Scranton. Pa. 



34 THE KITC'HEiN FIRE 

CHAPTER V. 

CHIMNEYS— DAMPERS— DRAFTS. 

A chimney is a vertical structure of stone, brick or 
metal containing an internal passageway or flue through 
which smoke and the waste gases of combustion are 
carried off from a stove, fireplace or furnace. It may 
be built inside or outside of a dwelling, and it also per- 
forms the very important function of supplying draft 
for the fire from which it receives the smoke and waste 
gases. 

The action of a chimney is based upon the simple 
principle that a column of heated air is lighter than a 
column of cooler air of the same height, and as heated 
air rises when unconfined, the greater weight of the 
cooler air at the bottom forces the warm air upwar'cis 
and thus air ascending current is produced. This is 
called draft. 

The chimney extending from the hearth or fireplace to 
the roof of the house is a modern invention, and was 
unknown to the ancients. The Greeks had no chimneys 
and the smoke of the fires escaped through a hole in the 
roof. The first form of a chimney was a short funnel 
through the wall of the house. Chimneys were common 
in Venice in the fourteenth century, a number being 
overthrown in the earthquake of January 25, 1347. 

No traces of chimneys were found in Pompeii or Her- 
culaneum. Persians still retain the ancient custom of 
making fires in holes in earthen floors in an iron vessel, 
a low table placed directly over, covered to the floor with 
a curtain and no means provided for the escape of smoke 
and gases. Chimneys were unknown in Enp-l»"d earlier 
than the t welfth century, and for centuries after 



MOW TO KUN IT 35 

remained as luxuries for the houses of the great. Even 
at the beginning of the sixteenth century they were 
almost unknown. 

In our time there is no detail in house construction so 
important to the comfort of its occupants as the chimney 
which furnishes draft to the heating devices in their 
home. 

CHIMNEY CONSTRUCTION. 

As a good draft is indispensable if the best service 
and efficiency is to be realized from the stove machine, 
particular attention must be given to the proper con- 
struction of the chimney and its flue. The chimney flue 
should never be less than 8x8 or 8x12 inches, and in 
large houses not less than 12x16 inches, especially if 
furnaces or boilers are used as part of heating system, 
not because such size is absolutely necessary, but to 
overcome roughness and cleaning of the flue. The 
straighter and more true the flues the more powerful 
will be the draft. 

If slight bends occur, the inside should not be drawn 
in, as that would lessen the capacity and tend to inter- 
cept the smoke and gases in their exit to the atmosphere. 
A round flue is more desirable also, because there will 
be less friction for the escape of the gases in their travel 
upward. 

If brick is the material used in construction, the hard- 
est only should be used next to the flue, for the coal gases 
greatly affect the brick and mortar, while wood fuel 
gases do not. The mortar should not extend, beyond 
the surface of the brick inside the flue, and it would be 
better still to use tile flue lining, for it does not absorb 
heat, and the inside of the flue would be tight and 



.-!»; THIE KITOHIEN PIRiE 

smooth and thus greatly facilitate the exit of the gases. 
Another important point to consider in the construc- 
tion of the chimney is the top and that part which ex- 
tends above the roof. The top of the chimney should 
not be drawn in or the exit of the flue made smaller, 
as there would be a liability to impede the draft. 
It would be better to increase rather than diminish the 
area at the top of the flue. 

DRAFTS. 

The chimney should be built high enough above the 
roof to obviate any down draft that might result from 
wind eddies or whirls of air that frequently occur where 
there are surrounding higher objects like other l)uild- 
ings, trees, hills, etc. L'sually the addition of a few feev 
to the height will obviate a difficulty of such character. 
Smoky stoves and fireplaces are due to impeded drafts 
and if proper chimney diagnosis is made the cause should 
be quickly discovered and remedied. 

In some countries it is the custom to cover the to]) of 
the chimney with some sort of a roof which may be 
arched or extend to a point. Openings nfiust be left 
for the quick and easy exit of the smoke aijd gases. A 
slab of stone or iron is also frequently used as a cover- 
ing. Down drafts in this manner are prevented and 
rain and nioistuie precluded from falling into the 
chimney. 

A m.echanical contrivance called a cowl, attached to 
the chimney top, is now used with great success for the 
purpose of increasing the chimney draft and thereby 
preventing smoke. It consists of a hood in which is a 
fan, it being so constructed that the fan faces the wind. 



HOW TO RUN IT 37 

changing with it, and by its revolution produces an 
upward suction of the air, which greatly increases the 
draft. 

One cause for a defective or weak draft is a poorly 
ventilated kitchen or room in which the stove or furnace 
is located. Doors and windows when provided with 
weather strips are nearly air tight and thus prevent a 
constant and fresh supply of air. Such inlets of air 
should be allowed if it is desirable to have the draft 
ilnimpeded. 

Still another cause for weak drafts is a sooty or 
dirty chimney. This condition prevents the smoke and 
waste gases from quickly passing up the chimney, there- 
by decreasing its natural draft. Great danger of chim- 
ney fires exist from such causes, and a sooty chimney 
also attracts lightning. 

With chimney conditions favorable, the best results 
from present stove construction are secured when all 
the air that passes up the flue enters at the bottom of 
the fire. It is thus heated to its highest temperature by 
passing through all the fire, and the fire is stimulated 
to increased combustion by the blast thus obtained. 

DAMPERS. 

A damper is an obstruction used to either prevent 
air from entering into a stove below the fire or to allow 
it to enter in large or small volume as needed to increase 
or diminish draft. Dampers are also used to prevent 
the waste and other gases from passing too quickly from 
the firebox of the stove through the smoke pipe flue and 
into the chimney from whence these escaping products 
of combustion pass upward into the general atmosphere. 
Stoves are usually provided with one or more doors 



\i^ TIIK IvITOLlWN i''I'U.K 

which Open into the ash pan, which is below the grate, 
and therefore under the fire. wSuch doors usually con- 
tain slide drafts, so called, but which are properly 
slide dampers. These dampers are intended to regulate 
the amount of air or draft to the bed of the burning 
fuel. It is, however, the tendency of every cook, fireman 
r>r stoker, to allow too much air, far more than neces- 
sary, to pass through this open damper into the fire. 
Except when starting a new fire, it is seldom necessary 
to allow this slide damper to stand wide open for more 
than a few minutes unless the stove or chimney is defec- 
tive in draft or in bad condition. 

Also many stoves have slide check dampers over and 
above the fire box, which, when open, either wholly or 
partially allow air to pass directly upon the burning fuel. 
This is designed to check or diminish the rapidity of the 
combustion or burning of the fuel, and is directly oppo- 
site to the first named process. Air admitted under the 
grate and through the fire increases the draft, thereby 
causing the fuel to burn more quickly, while air admitted 
above the fire and upon its top surface causes the fire to 
burn more slowly. The reason is that the air or atmos- 
phere of the room is much cooler than are the gases as 
they arise from the burning fuel. The gases thus be- 
come chilled, and as their temperature is then many 
degrees below the point at which they can ignite and 
burn, their combustion or burning is eflfectually pre- 
vented. 

Cooking and heating stoves also are usually supplied 
with internal dampers, sometimes called oven dampers 
or smoke dampers, and which are designed to ])revent 
the heat (waste gases) from passing directly from the 
fire to the smoke pipe flue and from thence into the 



H'UW TO RUN \T :'••> 

chimney. Such dampers close the opening into the base 
of the pipe and the heat and gases must then pass over 
and around the oven and find their way into the smoke 
pipe flue after their tortuous journey at the back of the 
stove. 



ILLUSTRATION No 1 




The oven or smoke damper in the illustration is open and the 
heat and gases pass directly into the smoke pipe and chimney where 
they are lost. 



Still another form ot a damper is frequently installed 
in the face of the first length of smoke pipe, which is 
usually oblong in sha])e. a short distance above the top 
of the stove. These dampers, or check drafts, may 
be either rectangular slides or circular in form, and are 



40 



THE KITCHEiN PliRE 



II.LUSTRATION N( 




In this illustration the oven or smoke damper is closed and the 
heat and gases pass around the oven before going into the chimney. 
They are thus utilized to better heat the oven. 



designed to intercept or extinguish the draft from the 
fire to the chimney. 

The oldest, best and most efficient damper to be used 
above the upper surface of the fire, is the damper in- 
stalled inside of the smoke pipe flue. This damper gives 
better control of the fire and should be installed 
whenever possible. Every cook, fireman and stoker 
should thoroughly master the subjects of drafts and 
dampers by experimenting w^ith the several kinds, there- 
by learning their uses and benefits under varying condi- 
tions. Large quantities of fuel would be saved and the 
labor would be greatly reduced, while the elimination 
of poisonous coal gas would be complete. 



HOW TO RUN IT 41 

CHAPTER VL 

FUEL GASES AND SMOKE. 

The subject of Fuel Gases is not generally understood 
by housekeepers. The proper manipulation of the fire 
has a most important effect upon the lives and health of 
all members of the family. Many women are disinclined 
to learn of the nature of the gases that are generated by 
fire, and thus remain uninformed, whereas, by investi- 
gating the subject, they would quickly learn how to 
always insure themselves against the pernicious and 
sometimes deadly effect of poisonous Coal Gas. 

A modern stove has already been stated to be a ma- 
chine for converting fuel of some nature or kind into 
heat. When a coal fire is started or fresh coal added to 
a fire, the first step or stage in the process of burning is 
that the heat releases the several gases, of which all fuel 
in some measure is composed. Being so released it is 
most desirable that the process of combustion should be 
completed.' Complete combustion means burning all the 
gases and all the carbon or solid portion of the fuel that 
it is possible to burn under the ordinary stove and chim- 
ney conditions prevailing in our homes. 

It is better, so far as possible, to cause these gases to 
be burned inside the stove, and thus destroyed, than to 
run the risk of the unburnt poisonous gases escaping 
from the stove through holes, through open doors of the 
stove or where, by the most reprehensible practice of 
wholly or partially removing one or more of the stove 
lids for the purpose of checking the fire, the gases are 
invited to enter the atmosphere of the kitchen. If 
there is fire in the stove, gases are generated, and if they 
are not burned they must escape through the smoke pipe 



42 THE KiTU'llEiN I'l'lfE 

to the chimney or enter the atmosphere of the living 
rooms. 

Where wood is the fuel the gases are not so deleterious 
to life and health. The volume of poisonous gases gen- 
erated from anthracite coal is far less than from any of 
the soft coals, while the volume of deadly gases gener- 
ated by burning the so-called Water Gas, commonly 
known as Illuminating Gas or Manufactured Gas, is sev- 
eral times that derived from burning the other fuels. 

The most poisonous and therefore the most deadly, 
gas produced from burning coal is known as carbon 
monoxide, or carbonic oxide, both terms referring to the 
same gas. One portion of oxygen and one like portion 
of carbon unite to form carbon monoxide. This gas will 
not burn until it takes on another like portion of oxygen, 
when it will burn to what is called carbon dioxide, or 
carbonic acid gas, which will not burn. Carbonic oxide 
has no color, taste or smell, and is, therefore, most insidi- 
ous and dangerous to human life. When breathed pure 
it produces almost instant coma — unconsciousness. Car- 
bon dioxide or carbonic acid gas is always present in the 
atmosphere in small quantities and supplies vegetable 
life with its necessary carbon. The carbon monoxide is 
the gas which is the product of imperfect combustion. 
All stoves in poor condition and those where lids are 
partially removed at night to check the fire can hardly 
fail to emit poisonous gas in some quantity. 

Other gases in small quantities are produced in the 
process of burning, some of which are combustible and 
others incombustible. Some are deleterious and others 
harmless, but the carbon monoxide is the great menace 
to life and health, which, however, may be utilized to 
our benefit if we will but exercise our privilege to be- 



HiUW TO IWN iT 43 

come acquainted with its properties — both beneficial 
and life destroying — and utilize our information to the 
end that it be compelled to be our agent for good instead 
of our mortal enemy. 

SMOKE. 

When smoke issues from a chimney or from a stove, 
it is evidence that imperfect combustion is in progress 
and that there is marked w^aste of fuel. Probably there 
is not great waste of fuel in the smoke itself, but the 
real waste arises from the non-combustion of the impuri- 
ties that escape with the smoke. These impurities con- 
sist of unconsumed carbon known as soot and of various 
poisonous gases, chiefly Carbon Monoxide, which will 
burn if the proper amount of oxygen is furnished to 
support its combustion, and also ammonia and sulphur- 
ous and nitrous acids escape. The soot, which, with con- 
densed water vapor, constitute the visible or darkened 
portion of smoke, clogs the lungs when inhaled, the poi- 
sonous gases act chemically on the blood, injure the 
nerves and irritate the delicate mucous membranes of 
the air passages and unfit them for their most important 
duty — the protection of the body against the germs of 
tuberculosis and other diseases. 

The injuries inflicted on animal organisms by smoke 
and soot do not, as a rule, become well marked until the 
injurious influences have acted for a considerable time. 

In vegetation the efifect appears more rapidly. Foli- 
age becomes coated with the soot, which hinders trans- 
piration (l)reathing) and suffocates the plants. The 
coniferous trees, such as pine, fir and spruce, whose leaf 
surface is increased by sub-division into myriads of 



44 THE KITCHEN FTRE 

slender points like needles, have a hard and doubtful 
struggle for existence in the soot-laden air of our cities. 
The injury is increased by acrid and poisonous sub- 
stances deposited with the soot or acting in gaseous 
forms. 

By proper construction of grates, air passages and 
other parts of stoves and furnaces, careful selection of 
fuel with rational methods of stoking or firing and the 
employment of suitable apparatus for the absorption 
and consumption of smoke it is quite possible to efifect a 
considerable abatement of smoke nuisance with a corre- 
sponding economy in fuel. 

Both on economical and humanitarian grounds, smoke 
should be prohibited in cities where hundreds of thou- 
sands of chimneys of dwellings and power plants daily 
emit in the aggregate hundreds of tons of soot which 
pollute the atmosphere and tend ;o l:)reed disease and 
cause the death of the inhabitants. 

It is estimated that nearly one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand tons of soot are deposited annually from the chim-^ 
neys of the City of New York, and that in ten cities of 
the United States more than four hundred thousand tons 
of soot fall yearly on those cities. As this soot contains 
thousands of tons of ammonia, chloride, carbon and tar, 
it is necessarily inhaled by the people, and is a direct 
cause of the frequency of catarrhal and lung troubles. 

The shopkeepers of the City of London suffered a 
loss of twenty-six millions of dollars ($26,000,000) in a 
two days' fog from the smoke and soot nuisance. It was 
described as the blackest in ten years, and caused influ- 
enza to become epidemic and deaths to be increased. 



THOVV TO KUN TT 45 

Great financial loss is sustained in our cities by shop- 
men, 1)uildings are damaged, and the proi)erty loss is 
hardly computable because no legislation has been en- 
acted by municipal legislative bodies to prohibit the 
smoke nuisance. A Public Health x\ct in operation in 
the City of London comprising money fines of twenty- 
five dollars for the first offense of smoke emission from 
furnace chimneys, fifty dollars for second offense, and 
so on in progression, has resulted in a great diminution 
of the nuisance. 

The municipal authorities in American cities, awak- 
ened to the danger to life and property from poisonous 
fuel gases, are passing ordinances for smoke suppression. 

There is reason to hope that the nuisance will ulti- 
mately be suppressed and that our chimneys will dis- 
charge only the final products of complete combustion, 
viz. : Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor. 

IMeanwhile devices for minimizing the injurious action 
of smoke, furnishing means for producing better and 
more complete burning of fuel, possess great interest. 

As very little volatile or gaseous matter is stored in 
anthracite coal, its smoke is hardly perceptil:)le. Wood 
is not burned in our cities to an appreciable extent, and 
if so burned, its smoke not containing the poisonous 
gases of coal, wiuild not he a menace to life and property. 

The softer, or bituminous coals are the principal 
oft'enders. 



46 THE KITOHBN FTRE 

CHAPTER VII. 

SAFETY AND SANITATION. 

It has been stated in a preceding chapter that the lives 
and health of a family are often seriously affected by 
the imperfect or careless manner in which coal or gas is 
burned in stoves and ranges. Safety follows sanitation. 
If the fire is properly confined in the stove and the 
proper quantity of air admitted to the fire in the proper 
place and at the proper time, the fuel will be properly 
burned ; in other words, perfect combustion will be 
nearly realized. In such case the unsanitary condition 
of poisonous coal gas will be eliminated. 

The elimination of coal gas — the deadly carbonic 
oxide — is and always has been since coal has been burned 
for fuel in the home, a more difficult problem to solve, 
and its elimination is only possible by providing means 
for the complete burning of the fuel gases. Good, tight 
plumbing w^ill obviate the disagreeable odor which fol- 
lows the intrusion of sewer gas into the atmosphere of 
the home. The coal gas is far more frequent a visitor 
in the homes of the rich and poor than the obnoxious 
smelling sewer gas. As soon as the presence of sewer 
gas is realized prompt measures are taken to remove the 
nuisance. The plumber is called and disinfectants are 
liberally used to purify the atmosphere of the home. 
No expense is considered to be too great, if only the foul 
intruder can be expelled. 

The deadly coal gas. Carbon Monoxide, however, does 
not herald or give premonition of its coming. It is col- 
orless, tasteless and without odor, and is, therefore, 
extremely dangerous. Chemists assert that carbonic 



HJOW TO RUN IT 47 

oxide gas is the most dangerous and deadly blood poison 
known to science. 

Physicians who have made extensive and protracted 
investigation and are familiar with the symptoms of 
carbon monoxide blood poisoning attribute many of the 
physical ills, more particularly of women and small chil- 
dren who remain much indoors, to the baleful effects of 
the constant yet unrealized inhalation of coal gas. The 
sufferers usually attribute their ailment to other causes, 
not realizing the presence of the deadly gas. 

Some of the typical symptoms of this blood poisoning 
are headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, palpitation, 
drowsiness, impaired energy and strength. 

When carbon monoxide is inhaled, as it is very often 
daily, the supply of oxygen inhaled is, of course, less, 
and serious changes are made in the heart, brain and 
other organs, and lesions are to be expected. 

When coal was first introduced in France from Eng- 
land, one serious objection to its use was that the com- 
plexion of women was injured by the inhalation of the 
smoke and gases. At that time it seemed a trivial objec- 
tion, but who can now doubt that as the inhalation of 
coal gas is known to deplete and shrivel the corpuscles 
of the blood, that the complexion and countenance of 
those inhaling it constantly would fail to betray its 
poisonous presence? 

It has been stated that wood fires are more healthful 
because of the comparatively slight presence of carbon 
monoxide in that fuel, and that coal gas, is and has 
always been, a menace to life and health since it came 
into general use for fuel. Also that anthracite coal con- 
tains a smaller proportion of carbon monoxide in its 



48 TII'E KITCIIDN PTR^K 

composition than any of the soft coals. More gases and 
smoke are generated from their burning because they 
contain a large proportion of the volatile gases. It 
necessarily follows that the housekeeper must contend 
against more deadly carbon monoxide and smoke when 
burning the bituminous coal. 

While the coal range frequently proves to be a factor 
in coal gas poisoning, the danger is not always in the fact 
that the stove is defective or illy constructed for its pur- 
pose. Frequently it has been mismanaged by the cook 
or housewife. If out of repair, exposed fire box. or if its 
flues are choked with soot or ashes so that its ordinary 
draft is impeded, the un1:)urned coal gas will generally 
find its escape to the kitchen aimosphere. A foul 
chimney.or an accumulation of soot or ashes in the smoke 
pipe, more liable to occur in the elbows or where the 
pipe enters the chimney flue, may produce similar re- 
sults. The danger is greatly increased where both con- 
ditions exist. 

WHEN GAS IS BURNED? 

\\ liile the j)rovince of this small volume does not 
quite cover tlic prol)lcm of burning gas as fuel, yet many 
have gas ranges also, or combination gas and coal 
ranges, and it may be desirable for such to understand 
the greater danger from carbon monoxide in operating 
the gas range. 

An emJnent authority has written as follows : "There 
is no industry connected witli the production and sale of 
a deadly poison so little subject to control and regula- 
tion as the gas industry." 



HJOW TO RUN IT 49 

Illuminating gas was formerly distilled from suitable 
bituminous coal and contained less than seven per cent, 
of carbon monoxide. As stated, if inhaled in sufficient 
quantity, it will destroy life, but such inhalation could 
scarcely occur without the knowledge of the affected 
party. The deaths from accidental poisoning due to gas 
leakage were quite infrequent. The present system of 
manufacturing illuminating gas is less expensive than 
the old. Water gas, as it is now known, is not distilled, 
but made from forcing steam on hot coal, anthracite or 
coke, which is partial burning or combustion. The 
steam changes the coal to carbon monoxide, and instead 
of being less than seven per cent of the volume, it is 
nearly thirty-one per cent, or five times the former per- 
centage. Measured by deaths from gas poisoning, the 
difference is much greater where illuminating gas as 
now manufactured is used. 

The economic feature has controlled the sanitary fea- 
ture. While the cost of gas fuel has been reduced, the 
liability to death from gas poisoning has increased nearly 
five fold. 

Most of the apparatus furnished for heating and cook- 
ing purposes has been constructed with but little atten- 
tion to the sanitary or health preserving feature. It is 
used ab(uU as ignorantly as our barbarous ancestors 
used their tent fires, except that the hole in the roof does 
not appear in our habitations. 

Any device, plate or burner, designed for burning gas. 
either for lighting, cooking or heating purposes in the 
open atmosphere of the room without being enclosed or 
confined, is a menace to life and health. The combustion 
of the gas is very liable to be incomplete, and if the car- 



50 THE KITC-HBN FTRE3 

boil monoxide is not wholly consumed it is certain to 
vitiate and poison the atmosphere of the room in Avhich 
it is burned. 

The gas tubing used to connect the plate or burner or 
flatiron with the gas pipe is often cheaply constructed, 
soon becomes leaky, and a lighted match held at the con- 
nections will often light a flame an inch long. The gas 
range requires constant attention and care, else instead 
of being an economical heat producing machine, it often 
becomes an instrument of death and disaster. 

Not only do many deaths result from carbon mon- 
oxide poisoning as a result from leaky and defective 
pipes and fixtures, but that fact is really unimportant 
compared with the efifect upon health of gas leakage in 
less than immediately fatal quantities. Air containing 
only four-tenths of one per cent, of carbon monoxide 
would, after a sufficient time, cause death in man, and 
even one-half that quantity would in many cases prove 
fatal. 

It follows, therefore, that either a coal range or a gas 
range is a most important factor in the life and health of 
any family. It may be made an almost perfectly work- 
ing machine, both economical and sanitary in its opera- 
tion, a device of great comfort and convenience; or by 
indifferent or careless atention it may prove not only ex- 
travagant and unsanitary, but destructive of human life. 

Too careful attention cannot be given to the following 
chapter on combustion or 1)urning fuel in stoves. 



HOW TO RUN IT 



51 



THE DOCKASH GAS RANGE. 




The Dockash Gas Range, as shown above, possesses 
the desirable features which all efficient gas ranges must 
possess if the best cooking can be done and the fuel gas 
burned in a sanitary and economical manner. It can be 
furnished to burn gasoline, but has been constructed to 
burn artificial or natural gas. It is manufactured by 
The Scranton Stove Works, Scranton, Pa. 



.,2 TU<\^: KTTr'HEIN FTTtiE 

CHAPTER VIII. 

FUEL BURNING AND FUEL SAVING. 

The following is quoted from an editorial in The 
Nation : "AVhen hard coal is ten dollars a ton many will 
study the mysteries of their furnaces and kitchen range 
and it will be found that with careful husbanding of 
heating and cooking fires, from one-quarter to one-half 
of the fuel formerly consumed can be saved. It will not 
be many generations before able-bodied Americans will 
be seen picking up dead leaves and dried pods along the 
road to cook their dinners." 

It is true that the last named condition already ex- 
ists in European countries, and that every twig of wood 
that can be utilized as fuel is carefully preserved for use 
when needed. 

Anthracite coal is on its way to ten dollars a ton, and 
soft coal is advancing toward the same excessive price. 

A large saving can be made in any home by simply 
controlling the tire. Fuel is wasted because the fire is 
not controlled, but is usually allowed to shirk for itself. 
It either is allowed to burn too fast, thereby forcing the 
largest volume of heat through the smoke pipe and 
chimney into the air where its only purpose is to warm 
the atmosphere, or it is allowed to smoulder and die out, 
making it necessary to rekindle or light afresh, both of 
which conditions result in a wasteful expenditure of 
fuel. 

The great volume of heat lost because of its escape 
through the smoke pipe and chimney is not realized by 
the housewife. No thermometer used in the home for 
measuring the temperature is graduated or marked in 



HOW TO RUN IT 53 

degrees nearly high enough to register or measure the 
degrees of heat inside the smoke pipe. When the tern-, 
perature of a kitchen is at eighty or ninety degrees only, 
and a brisk fire burning in the range with an oven hot 
enough for baking and roasting, the temperature inside 
the smoke pipe frequently registers five hundred or more 
degrees. This escaping heat is a total loss so far as its 
usefulness for cooking and baking is concerned. A 
greater volume of heat exists inside the smoke pipe, 
where it is not needed, than in the oven, where it is 
needed. The heat radiated from smoke pipe and chim- 
ney may serve to partially warm other rooms through 
which either or both may chance to pass, but aside from 
this benefit no useful purpose is served in allowing such 
large volumes of heat to escape without any attempt to 
control its exit. 

If it were possible to confine all the heat which escapes 
from the top of the chimneys of an ordinary dwelling 
into one room covering the area of the top of the dwell- 
ing, that room would, even in zero weather, be warmer 
than any room in the house. It would be a summer gar- 
den in which tropical fruits and plants would grow and 
thrive. The remedy for such gross waste of heat lies in 
its control after it has been generated in the stove ma- 
chine by pre\xmting its free exit from the stove. This 
is dcMie by a pr(^])erly constructed and properly installed 
damper inside the smoke pipe flue. 

ft has already been shown that in order to burn fuel 
properly, and, therefore, economically and with the best 
practical results, a certain proportion of air must be fur- 
nished to the burning- fuel, which is, under perfect stove, 
chimney and fuel conditions, with proper attention to 



r,4 THE KITOHBN Fl'RiE 

fire control, twelve pounds of air (one-fifth part of 
which is oxygen) to each pound of carbon, let us say, to 
each pound of best anthracite coal. In our domestic 
alTairs, however, those perfect conditions never exist, 
and consequently a considerably larger quantity of air 
or draft, so called, is necessary. 

It is not anticipated nor expected that any housewife 
or cook could, or would if she could, measure or weigh 
the air or the fuel consumed in maintaining the fn-e. It 
is, however, necessary to forcibly impress upon all the 
fact that far better fire and stove service may be secured 
from a less consumption of expensive fuel by exercising 
a better control of the stove machine. Better control of 
air admitted to the fire and better control of the heat 
products of combustion after the same have been gen- 
erated. This means more careful attention to drafts and 
dampers. 

The prevailing practice is to allow far too much air to 
enter the fire. The more air admitted to the fire under 
the grate by allowing the lower slide dampers to remain 
long wide open, the greater will be the intensity of the 
fire, but also the faster will the heat be driven to escape 
through the smoke pipe and chimney flue, so that only 
a small proportion of the desired heat is utilized. If 
this heat be prevented from escaping so rapidly by a 
proper use of the smoke pipe damper, it will be retained 
in the stove and utilized to better heat the oven and 
combustion chamber of the stove for all heatini:-, cooking 
and baking purposes. It will be found that less fire is 
needed because the chimney waste is largely reduced 
and less air or draft is necessary under the grate. 

It has been stated that fuel is carbon and that the 



mow TO HUN IT 55 

larger the quantity of carbon in the fuel the more valu- 
able it is as fuel. Also, that the carbon is of two kinds, 
viz., solid carbon or coke, and free carbon or gas, both 
of which may be burned in order to produce heat. 
Neither, however, can be entirely consumed, for there 
will l)e a small residue or remainder of the solid carbon 
in the form of ash, and a portion of the gas is also incom- 
bustible — will not burn — and must be allowed to escape 
through the smoke pipe and chimney flue. The nitrogen 
of the air which enters the fire with the oxygen does not 
burn and escapes with the waste gases. Nitrogen is 
tlie largest quantity of the gases escaping through tlie 
chimney, but it is not poisonous. It, however, is often 
so large in quantity that it absorbs much heat in its 
passage through the fire, so that if two or three times as 
much air as is necessary is admitted to the fire, the extra 
amount of nitrogen takes up a great deal of heat and 
carries off just so much of the heat with it in its journey 
through the chimney. 

The solid carbon and the free carbon burn separately 
and distinct, there being two separate processes in the 
burning. When coal is added to a fire the heat causes 
the free carbon, the gas, to separate from the solid car- 
bon in the form of water, vapor, steam, in small quantity 
only, which is mostly consumed. Directly the carbon 
gases are also released, and if proper quantity of oxygen 
is supplied so that every atom of the fuel is exposed to 
the action of the heated oxygen, the carbon gas mixes 
in even quantity with oxygen, thus producing carbon 
monoxide gas which will burn to carbon dioxide gas if 
another even quantity of oxygen has been supplied, thus 
producing heat. This is at the bottom of the layer of 



56 THE KITOHE)N FIRE 

fuel directly at the seat or place of live coals. As these 
gases are working upward through the fire there is less 
oxygen than nearer the grate, and as the fire increases 
there is more gas produced from the upper layer of the 
fuel and consequently more free carbon. There is not 
then enough oxygen to mix with the carbon monoxide, 
which, as has been stated, will burn. This gas finds its 
way through the bed of fuel unconsumed, because it 
has not found another equal quantity of the needed 
oxygen to support or help it to burn. It then must find 
its affinity — oxygen — above the fire or it will escape 
either into the kitchen or into the atmosphere through 
the chimney. In either case, it is waste, and it is also a 
menace to health and life. 

In order to be certain to burn this combustible gas 
known as carbon monoxide, it is necessary then to fur- 
nish oxygen at or near the top surface of the fire, so that 
the burning of all the combustible gas may be complete. 
The right quantity of oxygen must be supplied at the 
right time and right place. More still is necessary. Cold 
oxygen will not unite with hot carbon gas, so the oxy- 
gen should be heated to a high degree of temperature 
before it is allowed to enter upon the fire. Oxygen could 
be readily furnished by removing wholly or partially one 
of the stove lids, but the quantity admitted not only 
would be excessive, but its temperature would be so 
much cooler that the union would not take place. 

It will therefore be understood that the proper man- 
ner to burn fuel is to furnish air under the grate in regu- 
lated quantity, and to furnish heated air to the upper 
surface of the fire in order to completely burn the com- 
bustible gas which is always seeking to escape. 



HOW TO RUN IT 



57 



The burning of the coke or solid carbon proceeds 
regularly in a more simple manner and requires but little 
additional air. 

It is not the great intensity of the fire in the range, 
but its proper control which afifords the most satisfac- 
tory volume of heat. A moderate, uniform fire is usually 
sufficient for all practical purposes, and if under good 
control it can be increased or diminished almost as 
desired. 



58 TH'E K1TC!HE<N l-UliiE 

CHAPTER IX. 

SUPER-HEATED OXYGEN AND FUEL SAVING. 

The principle long since established of materially aid- 
ing the perfect combustion of fuel gases by projecting 
freshly heated air upon the top of fire has for a few 
years received marked attention by heating engineers 
in the United States and Europe. Heating engineers 
employed by railroad companies and large manufactur-^ 
ing corporations have made numerous experiments with 
many mechanical devices designed to furnish a blast of 
hot air upon the top surface of the burning fuel in the 
fire box of stationary and locomotive engines. Also 
many locomotive engines have been equipped with ac- 
cessories to super-heat the steam in order to create 
greater expansive power, and in both instances to pri- 
marily save fuel by utilizing all of the heat units instead 
of allowing the imperfect combustion of the fuel to con- 
tinue. Many manufacturers of stoves have constructed 
their ranges so that the air can be heated before it 
reaches the fire. Also manufacturers of hot air furnaces, 
steam and hot water boilers are adopting this principle 
by supplying means to super-heat the air before it 
reaches the fire box. 

Mr. John Livingstone, a heating engineer, read before 
the St. Louis Railway Club a paper on "How^ to Save 
Fifty Per Cent. Now Spent on Coal." His remarks were 
as follows : 

COMBUSTION OF FUEL. 

"Each locomotive will consume about five thousand 
dollars worth of coal each year on the average. 



HOW TO 1{jUN it 59 

If the union of the oxygen with the carbon of the 
combustible is perfect the result is Carbonic Acid. 

In the union, oxygen burns as well as the carbon of 
the fuel. 

When a ton of coal is said to be burned it means that 
if the combustion has been perfect every pound of the 
hydrogen (of the combustible) has entered into a union 
of eight pounds of oxygen producing 62,032 units of 
heat ; that every pound of the carbon (of the combust- 
ible) has entered into a union with 2.66 pounds of oxy- 
gen and produced 14,500 units of heat ; that every pound 
of carburetted hydrogen (of the combustible) has en- 
tered into union with four pounds of oxygen and pro- 
duced 23,313 units of heat ; that every pound of bicar- 
buretted hydrogen (of the combustible) has entered 
into union with 3.43 pounds of oxygen and produced 
21,343 units of heat ; that every pound of sulphur (of the 
combustible) has entered into union with one pound of 
oxygen producing 4,032 units of heat. And that to 
obtain those units of heat, the oxygen of the air was 
burned as well as the combustibles of the fuel. Those 
would be the resulting units of heat in perfect burning 
and about seven hundred and thirty thousand cubic feet 
of air would be required per ton of coal to deliver those 
combining portions of oxygen in the fire box. 

In the act of burning, an excess of air will lower the 
temperature below that at which carbon and oxygen 
will unite, and if an insufficiency of air for that union, 
Carbonic Oxide instead of the Carbonic Acid which 
results from perfect union, will be evolved. 

In the act of burning on the grate by the union of the 
combustible with the oxygen coming in air up through 



60 THE KITOHBN FIRE 

the grate, Carbonic Acid is formed, but that in coming 
through the bed of fuel to the surface is robbed of one 
and one-third (1 1-3) part of its oxygen and the Car- 
bonic Acid is resolved into Carbonic Oxide ; in effect 
the 14,500 units of heat from the perfect union of the 
carbon and oxygen are reduced to 4,452 units of heat by 
the formation of the Carbonic Oxide. But the Carbonic 
Oxide is a combustible Gas, and if there be oxygen with 
the temperature over the bed equal to the igniting tem- 
perature for carbon, when the Carbonic Oxide emerges 
through the fuel bed, the oxygen will unite with the 
Carbonic Oxide, reconvert it into Carbonic Acid with 
recovery of the lost 10,000 units of heat; the problem at 
that stage for the steam maker is how to get the re- 
quired oxygen into the fire box without lowering the 
temperature. 

As the fire burns it tends to create a vacuum. 

The air rushes in to fill the vacuum." 

The principles governing the complete and therefore 
economical burning of fuel in all heating systems is the 
same. The solid carbon and the free carbon — gas — 
burn in the same manner in the stove as in the locomo- 
tive. Different devices only are required to put the prin- 
ciple in practical operation where fuel is burned for do- 
mestic purposes. Such devices are successful in their 
operation and are valuable accessories to the range or 
stove. The saving of fuel is large, while the labor of 
maintaining the fire is greatly reduced. An illustration 
of a device made in circular form, to be used without 
alteration to the stove, simply occupying the place of 
one of the lids, appears on another page. 



PART II 



"Few people appreciate the fact that there can be a 
real saving of fuel with a coal range."— Good House- 
keeping Magazine. 



CONTENTS. 



Fig 
1. 



Page 
62 
67 
69 



1. Necessary Conditions for Fuel Saving 

2. Of First Importance 

3. Starting Fires 

4. Fire at Night and in Mornnig '^ 

5. How Much Coal Is Necessary j^ 

6. Burning Illuminatinor Gas l^ 

7. The Gas Stove and Water Heater 

8. Coal Range Accessories 

9. Gas Range Accessories 



78 
84 
89 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Wonder Disc ^^-?5 

2. Vulcan Iron Heater 

8. Dome Shaped Pot Cover 

4. Uncle Sam Damper = 

5. The American Damper ■ ^b 

6. The Economic Top . . = = "J 

7. Vulcan Cake Griddle = 

8. Vulcan Waffle Iron • 

9. The Lady Elgin Oven 

10. The Safety Gas Lighter 

IL The Androck Oven 

12. The Coke Burner • 97 



86 
86 

87 



92 
93 
94 
95 
96 



62 THE KITOHBN FIRE 

NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR FUEL SAVING. 

First — A good stove in good repair with proper chim- 
ney connections. 

Second — Good fuel. 

Third — Proper attention by the cook or person who 
operates the fire. 

A GOOD STOVE. 

A good stove is one suited to burn either wood, coal 
or coke. A change in grate may be necessary according 
to the kind of fuel to be burned. It should have a fire 
box of sufficient capacity to hold, when three-fourths 
full, enough fuel to properly heat the oven for baking 
and roasting. Also, if water reservoir is attached or hot 
water boiler to heat the water satisfactorily. Usually 
the oven test is sufficient, for any cooking stove or range 
which furnishes sufficient heat for baking and roasting 
performs all other functions satisfactorily. It should be 
equipped with free acting grate, proper fire brick lining 
of fire box and all its parts should be tightly fitted and 
assembled so that outside air can be excluded at will 
from the ash pit, fire box, oven and general combustion 
chamber of the stove. All draft and damper slides should 
be closely fitted and work easily when manipulated. 
The stove pipe should fit closely upon the collar of the 
stove or range, and it should be connected with the 
chimney flue with as few elbows and angles as possible. 
The general draft is better sustained by direct connec- 
tions than when the pipe must follow a tortuous course 
to the chimney flue. Where the pipe enters the chimney 
it should be made tight and close by surrounding the 
pipe with a thimble so that no air can enter the chimney 



now TO RiUN IT 63 

flue around the pipe. The pipe should not extend into 
the chimney flue, but should only meet it unless the 
chimney draft should be very strong, when the pipe could 
enter the flue and its end could be closed and the upper 
side of the pipe cut ofif slantingly, which would tend to 
decrease the strong draft. If another pipe connection 
with the same flue exists, either opposite or below, and 
which interferes with the draft of the stove in question, 
the same application could be made with beneficial 
results. 

SMOKE PIPE AND DAMPER. 

A cut-off damper, either round or oblong, should be 
installed inside the smoke pipe at as high a point above 
the stove as it could be conveniently reached by the 
operator standing upon the kitchen floor. No stove 
damper quite equals in efficiency the smoke pipe 
damper. It can be used wholly or partially closed, or 
open. Under certain conditions it can be used to pre- 
vent a down draft of air from the chimney and upon the 
other hand it can be used to moderate a strong draft 
when needed. The ordinary smoke pipe damper is per- 
forated, having a hole in the center an inch or two in 
diameter, which is supposed, when "closed, to allow the 
exit of nitrogen and other escaping products of com- 
bustion. 

This construction, altlu^ugh long used, is unscientific, 
for the nitrogen and other gases do not ascend j.^erpen- 
dicularly, but spirally, and at the rate of from three to 
ten feet per second. The damper should not be perfor- 
ated, but it should be installed with a less diameter than 
the inside of the smoke pipe so that the incombustible 



64 THE KITOHKN FIRE 

gases which must be allowed to escape can pass when 
the damper is closed between the outer edge of the 
damper and the inside of the smoke pipe. An opening 
all around the damper, when the same is closed, of three- 
sixteenths of an inch is usually sufficient to allow the 
incombustible gases to escape. 

GOOD FUEL. 

The best fuel cannot always be obtained, but only the 
best obtainable should be purchased. 

WOOD. 

If wood must be burned it should be cut in lengths 
only an inch or two shorter than the inside length of 
the fire box in which it is to be burned. It should also 
be well seasoned, containing as little moisture as pos- 
sible and preferably of the hard varieties like oak, beech, 
birch, maple, etc., and if split finely it will be consumed 
more rapidly than when in larger pieces, and round 
wood will not be burned so quickly as when split. 

COAL. 

The most satisfactory coal to purchase, and which is 
burned with less waste, less labor, and furnishing more 
units of heat, is hard anthracite. It is not accessible in 
all parts of the country owing to its production in a 
limited field and the consequent excessive transporta- 
tion expense to remote distances. Its cleanliness and 
the limited quantity of gaseous matter it contains are 
additional reasons why it is considered the most desir- 
able fuel for domestic consumption. 



HOW TO RUN IT 



65 



ANTHRACITE. 

The amount of carbon in anthracite coal varies from 
eighty-five per cent, to ninety-eight per cent. ; the vola- 
tile gases varying from one to eight per cent., while 
ash varies from one to seven per cent. Only that an- 
thracite should be purchased which has the largest pro- 
portion of carbon. It should be practicable for the 
housekeeper to demand from the dealer an analysis of 
the composition of the coal he offers to sell, and its 
price should be based upon the heat giving qualities of 
the product. The sale of coal should be regulated by 
law in the same manner as the sale of milk and food 
products are regulated. This is a reform which in due 
time will be inaugurated, and the subject no doubt will 
be taken up by the organizations of women who are 
seeking to discover methods by which the high cost of 
living may be reduced. 

SEMI-ANTHRACITE. 

This follows closely hard anthracite in all its desir- 
able features. It contains more volatile matter and is 
rather freer burning. 

SEMI-BITUMINOUS. 

It is a very close second to semJ-anthracite, burning 
still more freely and contains a still larger proportion 
of volatile gas. It is. nevertheless, a desirable fuel, and 
can be burned practically under the same conditions as 
anthracite. 

BITUMINOUS. 

Ordinary bituminous or soft coal is very plentiful, 
immense deposits existing in nearly all of the states in 



66 THE KITOHBN FIRE 

the South, West, and Central West. Its price is much 
less than that of anthracite owing to its abundance 
and to the fact that it is more gaseous, not so clean 
to handle, and having less carbon in its analysis. A 
very large proportion of the population in the United 
States burn soft coal for domestic purposes for the rea- 
sons given and because of its being so accessible. Its 
carbon varies from fifty-two to eighty-four per cent., 
its volatile matter from twelve to forty-eight per cent., 
ash and earthy matter from two to ten per cent., and it 
also contains from one to three per cent, of sulphur. 
As sulphur will burn, its low percentage is not objec- 
tionable. 

PROPER ATTENTION TO THE FIRE. 

Modern stoves are machines used to convert any of 
the fuels named into heat. The stove being a machine 
must be operated by an engineer, who may be man or 
woman, housekeeper, cook, maid, or servant". If this 
engineer understands the nature of fuels and their 
gases, the elements Oxygen, Nitrogen and Hydrogen 
and the use of drafts and dampers incident to the ma- 
chine we call the stove, the labor of operating it will be 
reduced very greatly, and a very large reduction made 
in fuel consumption. 

It should be remembered that when coal is burned 
gas is first produced, then this gas that is combustible 
should be burned inside the stove and the heat utilized 
instead of being allowed to escape through the smoke 
pipe and chimney unconsumed. The machine is in- 
tended to be used first to convert the fuel into gas, and 
second, to provide means to burn the gas. 



HOW TO RUN IT 67 

Specific directions follow : 

OF FIRST IMPORTANCE. 

First — ^The stove and the pipe and where the pipe 
enters the chimney flue must be kept clean. Ashes and 
soot must not be allowed to accumulate in any part of 
the stove or pipe at the connection of the pipe with 
chimney flue. Such accumulation impedes draft, and 
without good draft the complete efficiency of the stove 
will not be realized. 

Second — Do not add large quantities of coal at any 
time. A larger quantity may be necessary to carry a fire 
over night, but not nearly so much is necessary as is 
commonly believed. 

Third — Do not allow lower slide drafts to remain open 
long at any one time, nor should the pipe dampers re- 
main open indefinitely. Try to operate the stove with 
the smoke pipe damper closed as much as possible. The 
cut-off smoke pipe damper can be opened or closed one- 
fourth, one-half, three-fourths, or opened or closed com- 
pletely. It can be adjusted at any angle. The oven 
damper, however, is not adjustable to stop at any angle. 
Generally it is so constructed that it must be entirely 
open or entirely closed. The lower slide draft is adjust- 
able. It can be opened only one-eighth of an inch, or 
entirely opened, or stopped at any. intermediate jxjint. 
Do not allow too much air to enter below the grate. 
Limit the quantity by using the slide draft in the door 
below the grate. 

Fourth — Operate the fire by keeping it as low as pos- 
sible in the fire box. Never permit the fuel to be above 
the top of the fire bricks. 



fiS THE KITCHEN FIRE 

Fifth — Shake grate lightly to dispose of loose ashes. 
There will be no clinkers unless the fire has been allowed 
to burn too fiercely and then suddenly cooled. 

Sixth — If the chimney draft is weak or medium, open 
the oven damper and operate the stove with the aid of 
the smoke pipe damper and the lower slide draft. When 
baking is necessary, follow the directions given else- 
where, 

EXPERIMENTS WITH DRAFTS AND DAMPERS. 

First — Open the lower slide drafts and oven damper 
and wholly close the smoke pipe damper. Watch the 
action of the fire long enough to determine the result. 

Second — Then also close the oven damper, leaving 
the lower slide draft open. Again carefully observe 
results. 

Third — Now close the lower slide drafts also and ob- 
serve as before. 

Fourth — After that experiment, open the oven damper, 
leaving the smoke pipe damper and the lower slide drafts 
closed. This should hold a good fire a long time with 
but little fuel consumption. If more heat is needed, 
allow more air by opening the lower slide drafts as little 
or as much as the occasion may require. 

Fifth — It will be seen that the lower drafts being 
adjustable and the smoke pipe damper being also ad- 
justable, the fire may be controlled at will. It is only 
in those extreme cases of very strong draft that it will 
^e found necessary to also close the oven damper (bak- 
ing excepted). 



HOW TO RUN IT 69 

STARTING A WOOD FIRE. 

Remove all tlie dust and a.-hes from the grate and also 
from the top of the oven and brush them into the ash 
pan. Ashes should be removed daily and not allowed 
lo accumulate, because they absorb heat, and if left, 
might choke the draft. Also, ashes should be frequently 
removed from under the oven. The cleaner the stove 
can be kept in all its chambers of soot and ashes, the 
better. The draft will then remain normal. 

Either shavings or paper should be placed in the bot- 
tom of the grate loosely, — not packed, — so the air can 
pass freely through them. Upon this lay small kindling 
of light wood, the pieces crossing each other, and then 
use larger pieces of wood cro.-swise as much as possible. 
The air can then pass freely through the fuel after it is 
lighted, and now light with match or paper or wood 
taper from below after having the stove lids in place. 
The smoke pipe and the oven dampers must be wide 
open — also the lower slide drafts below the grate. 
After the fire has been well started and the fuel settled, 
add more wood and close the oven damper and partially 
close the lower slide. If the chimney draft is strong, 
the lower drafts may be entirely closed. If there is 
installed a cut-off damper in the smoke pipe above the 
stove, it should be also closed. It is better to control 
the fire by opening or closing that damper in connec- 
tion with the lower draft. At times either may be 
wholly or partially opened or closed independently of 
the other. 

STARTING A COAL FIRE. 

The same process should be followed as with the 
wooJ fire except to place a shovel or two of fine coal 



70 TUB KITCIIUN tTRiE 

on top of the wood. When the fire is nicely started add 
two or three shovels of coal, and when the coal is burn- 
ing red fill the fire box three-fourths full, but never to 
the top or above the fire bricks. If the coal reaches 
above the top of the fire brick the lids and top of the 
stove will become red hot and be warped or broken, the 
draft will be impeded and fuel wasted. Damage will be 
done and no benefit realized. 

When the blue flame appears on top of the fire, close 
the drafts and dampers wholly or partially as before. 
Add small quantities of coal as needed and be certain to 
have it sprinkled over all the top of the fire. The top 
of the fire should always be kept level, for if fuel is 
placed only at one end the fire will not be uniform and 
one end of the fire will be burned out when the other 
end is burning briskly. 

Do not remove covers to dampen the fire, but control 
it by using a smoke pipe damper. In case the chimney 
draft is very strong, the fire can be further checked by 
partially opening the slide draft directly over the fire. 

Always seek to check the fire by other means than 
forcing air upon the top of the fire by removing lids. 
By such means fuel is wasted and coal gas allowed to 
escape in the room. 

COKE FIRES. 

A coke fire is operated in the same manner, but re- 
quires less air for draft than coal. It produces more 
heat and burns out grates and fixtures more than other 
fuels if not properly controlled. Coke absorbs mois- 
ture readily and should be stored in a dry place. 



HOW TO IWN IT 71 

SOFT COAL FIRES. 

This fuel is burned in a similar manner and does not 
require so much draft as hard coal. Sometimes soft 
coal fires become caked on top and need to be stirred or 
broken with a poker before fresh fuel is added. If small 
quantities only of soft coal are added to the fire, it may 
be burned with much less smoke. 

FIXING THE FIRE FOR THE NIGHT. 

First — If the chimney draft is very strong, don't shake 
out all the loose ashes in the bottom of the grate, for a 
new and clean fire will burn out too quickly. If some 
ashes remain in the bottom of the grate it will cause 
the fire to burn more slowly. 

Second — Put on the fire only one-^half the usual quan- 
tity of fuel supposed to be necessary to carry the fire 
till morning. Do not remove the stove lids to dampen 
the fire, for when cold air is admitted to the top of the 
fire, combustion of the coal is imperfect and the sulphur- 
ous and poisonous gases will escape into the room, but 
in cases of very strong draft the slide check draft above 
the fire box may be partially opened. Leave the damper 
in the smoke pipe closed or partially closed according to 
the strength of the chimney draft. With strong chim- 
ney draft, the smoke pipe damper may be closed, and 
with a weak or medium chimney draft it may be left 
entirely or partially open. Another method of retard- 
ing a strong draft is to pack the fuel tightly so that the 
air cannot circulate freely through it. Only in extreme 
cases is such action necessary. 



72 THE KITOHE'N FliRE 

IN THE MORNING. 

If the fire is out in the morning, it has had either too 
much or too little draft. If the coal is all burned to 
ashes there has been too much draft — -too much air 
supplied. In such case the smoke pipe damper must be 
entirely closed, and some of the expedients before men- 
tioned used also. If the coal has not been burned, but 
the fire has smothered out, there has been too little draft, 
and the pipe damper should be left entirely open. When 
a fire is found to be low in the morning, open all drafts, 
oven and pipe dampers, and sprinkle a little coal over 
the tire and be careful about shaking the grate too much 
for that might disarrange the fire so rebuilding w^ould 
become necessary. Shaking out the loose ashes gently 
or raking them from the bottom of the grate with a 
poker is the proper treatment. 

BAKING AND ROASTING. 

All stoves and ranges not known as "good bakers" 
require special preparation of the fire previous to using 
the oven for that important purpose. 

The fire, therefore, must be prepared by vigorous 
shaking of the grate to remove loose ashes. A moderate 
quantity of fuel — coal when that is the fuel — or wood, 
should be covered upon the fire and the oven or smoke 
damper opened. Also the cut-ofT damper inside the pipe 
should l3e opened (we insist that a cut-off damper 
inside the pipe is an indispensable accessory to any stove 
or range). The lower drafts must be wide open, which 
will cause the fuel to be burned rapidly. When the coal 
is incandescent — red — close the smoke pipe damper, and 
the heat, instead of passing up the smoke pipe and 



now TO RUN IT 73 

chimney, will be retained in the stove and the oven 
quickly heated. If then it seems desirable to have more 
heat in the oven, close the oven or smoke damper, which 
will send the heat over and around the oven, and par- 
tially open the cut-off damper in the smoke pipe, leaving 
the lower drafts open. If the oven gets too hot, close 
the lower drafts and open wide the cut-off damper in 
pipe. It is desirable to retain all the heat possible in the 
stove and therefore the smoke pipe damper should be 
kept closed as much as possible and the lower drafts 
kept open as necessary. By this process the heat, instead 
of escaping through the pipe and chimney is utilized in 
the stove. The result is less consumption of fuel. 

CLINKERS. 

Occasionally housekeepers are annoyed by the col- 
lection or fusing of the fuel into rough, irregular bodies 
usually known as clinkers. They occupy space to the 
extent of reducing the volume of the fire and often seri- 
ously impede the draft. They are commonly supposed 
to consist of poor coal, which, in some instances, may be 
true. Generally they are the product of poor combus- 
tion occasioned by the mismanagement of the fire. The 
drafts have been allowed to remain open too long, re- 
sulting in a very high temperature of the burning coal. 
This condition being observed by the person who main- 
tains the fire, drafts are closed and lids removed to 
dampen the fire. The cooler air in the room quickly 
lowers the temperature of the fire, stopping combustion, 
and as a result the unconsumed parts of the fuel fuse — • 
collect in a mass, which are called clinkers. The diffi- 
culty may generally be obviated by maintaining better 



74 TUB KITOIIB'N t^IRB 

control of the fire and not allowing it to burn to white 
heat. 

WHY A DAMPER SHOULD BE INSTALLED IN 
THE SMOKE PIPE ABOVE THE STOVE. 

First — Because by using a smoke pipe damper in con- 
junction with the lower slide drafts the fire can be better 
regulated and controlled than by relying upon the oven 
or smoke damper which is located at the base of the 
pipe inside the stove. The principal benefit derived 
from the oven damper is in its use in sending heat 
around the oven. Nine-tenths of the time it would be 
better to have the oven damper open and rely on the 
smoke pipe damper for control. In baking, the oven 
damper may be used if thought necessary. 

Second — It is desirable to allow nitrogen and other 
incombustible gases to pass away from the burning fuel 
as quickly as possible, for they are in the way and 
retard complete combustion. If the pipe is open at the 
base the nitrogen will pass quickly up the pipe through 
the smoke pipe damper into the chimney at the rate of 
three feet or more per second and into the atmosphere. 
If, however, the oven damper closes the pipe at the base 
the nitrogen is retained too long in the stove and must 
pursue a tortuous journey across, up and down several 
feet 'in distance before it can resume its direct journey to 
the atmosphere. Its presence is deleterious to good com- 
bustion. 

Third — It better prevents waste through the chimney. 

Fourth — It greatly assists in producing slower yet 
better combustion of the fuel, thereby burning the fuel 
to fine ashes, which renders sifting unnecessary. 



HOW TO nUN IT - 75 

Fifth — It assists in securing better control of the fire 
and prevents the stove top from being overheated and 
injured. 

Sixth — It helps to prevent down draft in the chimney 
and stove from smoking. 

Seventh — it will prevent chimney fires where wood is 
burned as fuel. 

Eighth — It greatly assists in controlling strong draft. 

Ninth — it greatly assists in securing a hot oven for 
baking and a hot fire for ironing by keeping the heat in 
the stove, thereby saving large quantities of fuel. 

Tenth — By better fire control the stove will last longer, 
will not need frequent repairs, permits maintaining a 
low fire in hot weather, with a warm kitchen even in 
zero weather and a plentiful supply of hot water at all 
times. 

HOW MUCH COAL IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS? 

When the heat which in the ordinary processes of 
burning coal in stoves and ranges is allowed to escape 
up the smoke pipe and chimney is utilized in the stove, 
the saving of coal is enormous. Many families of only 
ordinary size — six persons — consume as much as one 
ton of two thousand pounds in a single month, or sixty- 
six and two-thirds pounds each twenty-four hours as an 
average. This amount, large though it may be, is often 
exceeded — as much as seventy-five pounds per day, or 
the equivalent of three large coal hods, is frequently 
consumed. 

When stove conditions are favorable and good fuel 
had with the proper smoke pipe damper installed, not 
more than thirty-three pounds of anthracite coal should 



76 TH'E KITOHEJN PIRiE 

be consumed in a family of six or seven persons. The 
assumption is that the fire has intelligent attention. 

One ton of coal at the rate of thirty-three pounds 
daily will be burned in sixty days. At the rate of $6.00 
per ton for coal the cost of fuel will be ten cents per 
day, or $3.00 per month, which is not an excessive 
fuel expense, although so much would not be burned 
in all the months of the year. The Author has fre- 
quently observed instances where ten pounds less per 
day are consumed, and the more careful and pains- 
taking cooks demonstrate they can operate their range 
with twenty pounds of coal daily unless some extra 
demand has been made for more heat. At this rate of 
coal consumption the cost would be l)ut six cents daily, 
or one dollar and eighty cents per montli. 

THE BURNING OF ILLUMINATING GAS. 

Gas as Fuel. The illuminating gas manufactured by 
distillation from coal and called Coal Gas was first used 
in the United States for lighting and not for cooking 
purposes. It contained only about seven per cent, or 
one-tfourteenth part of Carbon Monoxide Gas, which is a 
deadly blood poison. 

As the public demand for gas both for illuminating 
and cooking purposes increased, gas manufacturers 
learned to manufacture what is called Water Gas and 
which contains from thirty to forty per cent, of the 
deadly Carlson Monoxide. This Water Gas is manufac- 
tured more cheaply than the former gas, so while the 
consumer may gain in economy of dollars (which is not 
at all certain), and convenience, for gas is a convenient 
fuel to burn, it is at the risk of the health of the family. 



HOW TO BUN IT "^7 

The following- is quoled from a bulletin by Dr. Ben- 
sel, Chief of the Sanitary Bureau of the Health Depart- 
ment, New York City: "Gas stoves are by all odds the 
most detrimental of the heating apparatus inasmuch as 
the products of combustion in themselves include gases 
that are detrimental to health and at times even danger- 
ous to life. In the case of gas stoves not only is oxygen 
removed from the air and Carbon Dioxide and water 
added to it, but a certain quantity of Carbon Monoxide, 
an extremely deadly gas, is also added. The case of oil 
stoves is a little different inasumch as the products of 
combustion are simply Carbon Dioxide and water, none 
of the dangerous Carbon Monoxide being added. 

In both instances, however, as the products of com- 
bustion are given directly into the atmosphere they must 
be considered as decidedly detrimental to health unless 
extreme provision is made for ventilation. It may be 
added that extreme ventilation is such a rarity as to be 
unusual." 

Carbon Dioxide is the gas which is a product of com- 
plete combustion. It will not burn, but is the product 
left after all other gases have been consumed. Plants 
breathe and must have it to prolong their life. It exists 
constantly in the atmosphere in the proportion of four 
parts in ten thousand. When air is inhaled by humans 
containing six parts in ten thousand, the sanitary limit 
has been reached. 

Carbon Monoxide is the gas which is a product of 
incomplete combustion, and as complete combustion in 
stoves is seldom realized, the danger of Carbonic Mon- 
oxide poisoning is always imminent. 



78 THE KITOBDBN FTRB 

The toxic — the poisoning — power of Carbon Mon- 
oxide is sixty times that of Carbon Dioxide. It is 
absorbed in appreciable quantities by the blood from 
an atmosphere containing in it one part in five thousand. 
When air containing one part of Carbon Monoxide in 
two thousand is inhaled, the blood absorbs as much 
Carbon Monoxide as oxygen, and death ensues. 

Prolonged exposure to an 'atmosphere containing even 
one part of Carbon Monoxide in twenty thousand is 
extremely dangerous to health. 

THE GAS STOVE. 

When gas is used continuously through the year for 
cooking purposes, some provision should be made to 
carry ofif the products of combustion, as they are of a 
poisonous nature and the conditions under which they 
are produced being different from gas lighting. 

It cannot be insisted on too strongly that the idea 
that some forms of gas stoves or burners can be used 
without being attached to a proper flue is not only dan- 
gerous to health, but also militates against the use of 
gas for fuel. A gas fire, whether used for heating or 
cooking, must be connected with a flue, as the products 
of combustion are just as deleterious, if not so dirty, as 
those thrown oft" by the combustion of solid fuel. 

Theoretically, complete and therefore both econom- 
ical and hygienic combustion is possible in the opera- 
tion of the Gas Range notwithstanding more than one- 
third of the gas fuel is a deadly poison. When all con- 
ditions are perfect the results cannot fail to be satisfac- 
tory, and all gases will be consumed except a small 
residue of harmless Carbon Dioxide and water vapor, 



HOW TO RUN' IT 79 

even if there be no connection between the Gas Range 
and chimney flue. 

It is probable, however, that more than ninety per 
cent, of gas stoves have at least one if not more burners 
out of adjustment. This condition is due to several 
causes, such as clogged burners, burners not in proper 
condition, insufficient supply of gas and the wrong pro- 
portion of air caused by inexperienced hands changing 
the position of the air shutter, any of which will produce 
incomplete combustion, the products of which, if not 
properly carried ofif, will condense on the doors, win- 
dows and walls. Therefore, when equipping a kitchen 
with gas appliances to be used throughout the whole 
year, ample provision should be made for either direct 
or indirect flue connections. 

But little danger exists in summer months when doors 
are open and the kitchen well ventilated, but in the win- 
ter danger is extreme, as windows and doors will be 
kept closed and some means must be provided for the 
escape of the poisonous fumes. When oven burners 
only are connected with a flue, the waste gases from the 
top burners are not provided for and the direct flue con- 
nection with the oven burners sets up a draft that draws 
heat from the oven that otherwise would be utilized. 
This condition makes a greater expenditure of the fuel 
gas necessary. A direct flue connection with the oven 
burner might, too, result in a down draft, which has been 
known to extinguish the flame, and serious accidents 
have been the result. 

A hood placed about three feet above the top of the 
stove and connected either with the chimney, the attic 
or the outside of the dwelling ofttinies provides the best 



so . THE KITOHIEN FIRE 

and most practicable method of ventilation for gas 
ranges, as the fumes from the oven as v^ell as from the 
top burners will rise directly to the hood and be carried 
out of the room by the heated current of air set in 
motion by burning gas. 

Carbon Monoxide is often formed when the flames 
from a top burner strike the cool bottom of a vessel 
because of an improperly adjusted burner or one that is 
too near the racks. In this condition we have the gas 
burning in an insufficient supply of oxygen the same as 
when a burner back fires. The flames should not touch 
the bottom of the vessel placed on the burner. The 
burner should be placed low enough so that when prop- 
erly adjusted the flames cannot come in contact witli 
the vessel. If the flame is of sufficient length to touch 
the vessel it may be observed that there is a space 
directly underneath the vessel where there is no com- 
bustion taking place or no flame is burning, and as the 
vessel becomes heated this space decreases the tempera- 
ture and extinguishes the flame, thereby giving incom- 
plete combustioTi. This is not only a waste of gas, but an 
unsanitary condition, and the waste products should 
have convenient access to the outside atmosphere. 

For sanitary reasons only, no gas stove or burner of 
any description should be allowed in use where proper 
flue conditions have not been provided. The laws of the 
state or municipality permit gas fuel composed of at least 
a one-third deadly poison to be sold without any restric- 
tion whatsoever. The mortality statistics of New York 
and Philadelphia show strikingly the increase in the poi- 
sonous qualities of the gas fuel since the introduction of 
Water Gas. The fatalities resulting from the accidental 



HOW TO RUN IT 



81 



or other inhalation of Carl)on Monoxide are but as a 
single grain of sand upon the seashore compared to the 
myriads of people who constantly suffer from continued 
inhalation of the deadly poison. 

A Remedy. It has been proposed to restrict by law 
the amount of Carbon Monoxide in gas and to prohibit 
the distribution of any gas containing more than a stat- 
ed quantity of the poisonous ingredient. This plan 
would prove effective but nothing short of a general up- 
rising of the public in a demand for such legislation will 
avail. A system of weekly or monthly inspection of all 
installations where gas is used for fuel by properly con- 
stituted authority, while expensive, would greatly con- 
duce to the health, safety and economy of the entire 
public. 

The Gas Water Heater. When a Gas Water Heater 
is installed in a bath room a flue should always be pro- 
vided for the exit of the waste gases. The burner in such 
a heater is necessarily large, and even if properly ad- 
justed to give a correct mixture of gas and air, the flame 
is certain to come into contact with the cold coils, which 
reduces 4he temperature of the gas quickly and Carbon 
Monoxide and Acetylene will be given off, the result of 
imperfect combustion. It is very necessary to have flue 
conditions to dispose of these poisonous products. 

Bath rooms are generally of small area and are usu- 
ally not ventilated, and when the Gas Heater is in action, 
especially \u cold weather, no \ciiiilation is tolerated. 
The poisonous products must, under such conditions, 
remain to be inhaled, and this is often followed by seri- 
ous results. 



82 THE KITOHEN rFTTHEJ 

When a flue connection is made great care must be 
taken to prevent back drafts from the outside atmos- 
phere as a back draft often smothers the flame. This 
can be prevented by placing a hood or cap at the outer 
end of the flue pipe. Ofttimes it is possible to have a 
connection exhausting in the attic. Back drafts are 
thereby almost completely obviated. 

Another method of preventing back drafts is by in- 
stalling a damper in the flue. While this method is 
effective, there is always present the danger that the 
damper may be accidentally closed or forgotten, and if 
the pipe has been neglected and becomes dirty and 
clogged with soot, the small openings in the damper will 
be obstructed, giving no ventilation whatsoever. Seri- 
ous accidents have resulted under similar conditions. 
Such accidents may be avoided by keeping the Gas 
Range and flue clean so that the proper combustion of 
the gas can always take place. 

The instantaneous water heater, though consuming 
more gas, is more hygienic than the circulating. The 
heated products of combustion -coming in contact with 
the water destroys all germs therein, giving a pure bath 
water. 

Keeping the Gas Range Clean. The necessity of 
keeping a gas range clean, especially the connecting 
flues and burners, is even a more important detail than 
a like supervision of the coal range. The gas fuel is 
more dangerous to handle than the coal fuel. When the 
flues and burners become clogged in a gas range the 
combustion is certain to be imperfect, and this condition 
positively results in great waste of gas and extreme dan- 
ger to health and life. The holes in the burner must be 



HOW TO [RUN IT 83 

kept open so there can be a steady, full egress of gas 
from the burner. Under the most careful usage and per- 
fect conditions surrounding the gas range, the atmos- 
phere of the kitchen is polluted to some extent with the 
poisonous products of combustion. All gas pipes, rub- 
ber hose and all their connections with stoves, flues, 
light burners and fixtures should be frequently tested to 
determine if leakage occurs in any quantity whatever. 
A small leakage here and there may appear unimpor- 
tant, but in the aggregate its volume greatly pollutes 
the atmosphere of the kitchen. 

Test for Leaky Pipes. Apply soap suds by means of 
a brush to the fittings and joints suspected of being 
leaky. Whenever there is a leak the escaping air will 
cause soap bubbles to form and will in this way show 
its location. The housekeeper should insist on tests by 
the Gas Company at stated intervals. 

To Clean a Gas Stove. Every housewife or maid is 
more or less annoyed by the top of the gas stove becom- 
ing soiled, if not clogged, with spatterings of grease. 
All the parts of the stove that can be removed should for 
several hours be irrimersed in a warm lye containing one 
part of caustic soda to twenty parts of water. The fixed 
parts of the stove may be well brushed in this lye and 
afterwards all rinsed in clear warm water, wiped dry 
and a fire started in the stove for a few minutes to com- 
pletely remove all moisture so that no parts will rust. 

ACCESSORIES FOR COAL AND GAS RANGES. 

In recent years a very large number of devices have 
been invented and manufactured designed to save fuel, 
to give greater efficiency to stoves and to render kitchen 



cS4 THE KITCHEN FIRE 

labor less disagreeable and irksome. Many such de- 
vices possess great merit and are marvels of conveni^ 
ence, their use affording comforts not hitherto enjoyed 
by the housewife or cook. 

The articles herein illustrated have been subjected to 
both practical and scientific test in the Experiment Sta- 
tion of the Good Housekeeping Institute conducted by 
the Good Housekeeping Magazine in the interest of its 
readers and may be accepted, therefore, by housekeepers 
as devices possessing absolute merit. 

COAL RANGE ACCESSORIES. 

The Wonder Disc is a very simple yet very practic- 
able stove accessory, designed to save wood, coal or 
coke, and to burn it in a sanitary manner. It furnishes 
heated air — oxygen — to the upper surface of the fire 
where it mixes or commingles with the gases and causes 
all that are combustible to burn. The saving of fuel is 
large, varying under conditions from one-third to one- 
half. 

The indorsement of the Wonder Disc follows the illus- 
tration. 




HOW TO RUN IT 



85 




THE WONDER " Disc taken apart, 

SHOWING HOW THE OXYGEN IS HEATED 
AND SPREAD OVER THE FIRE SURFACE 



Approved ]yy Cn)od Housekeeping Institute as follows: 
"An iron lid for use on range using anthracite coal so 
constructed as to consume the gases, thereby increasing 
heat and saving fuel. This is an excellent device v\rhen 
properly used," 



VULCAN IRON HEATER. 

This simple device may be used w^ith either a coal or 
gas range. It heats four flat irons at once, keeps the 



86 



THIB KITOHOE/N FIHiB 



irons clean and smooth, and helps to make ironing easy. 
The irons never come in contact with the flame when 
used on a gas range. It reduces gas bills. 




Good Housekeeping Institute approves as follows: 
''The Vulcan Square Iron Heater is a flat iron plate 
with polished surface made to hold four ordinary sized 
flat irons. To be used on coal or gas stoves for heating;^ 
flat irons or as a griddle or hot plate. Made by William 
H. Crane Company, New York City." 



THE DOME SHAPED PERFORATED FRYING 
PAN AND POT COVER. 




The dome shaped cover placed on a boiler will give 
far better satisfaction than a flat cover. It prevents 
boiling over when cooking, and the spattering of grease 
on the stove. It is a most meritorious device, conveni- 
ent, sanitary and economical, and has been approved by 
the Good Housekeeping Institute, 



HOW TO TElUOSr IT 87 

SMOKE PIPE DAMPERS, 

The principal use of a smoke pipe damper is to retard 
the exit of the products of combustion. It is an exceed- 
ingly valuable stove adjunct accessory, and should be 
installed in every smoke pipe when practicable. 



UNCLE SAM DAMPER. 




When the chimney draft is strong or very strong the 
Uncle Sam Damper should be installed inside the smoke 
pipe as high above the stove as it is convenient and 
practicable to operate it. It should be installed so that 
it may be easily operated without friction with the in- 
side of the smoke pipe. 



THE KITC'HiEiN FIRE 



The above damper is manufactured by the Sayre 
Stamping Company, Sayre, Pa. 



1 

THE AMERICAN DAMPER. 

This damper is not a solid plate, but is perforated, is 
very strongly made, and easily operated. It is of special 
use in cases of medium or weak chimney draft and is 
manufactured by Griswold & Co., Erie, Pa. 

PERFECTION ASH SIFTER. 




trow TO RUN IT 89 

By Good Housekeepino- Institute: 

"The Perfection Ash Sifter is made entirely of gal- 
vanized iron and consists of a case which fits closely over 
the top of an ash can, a hopper and cinder chute. The 
ashes being placed in the hopper are fed through a sta- 
tionary screen into a cone-tshaped screen in the chute, 
which revolves. The hopper and cinder chutes are 
made in one piece, but so arranged as to separate ashes 
and cinders, the ashes into the barrel, the cinders pass- 
ing on to a coal hod hung on a hook. The screen cannot 
become clogged and a removable top cover over the 
the rotary screen gives access to all parts. A dust 
damper in the under chute prevents escape of dust in 
sifting and the action of the sifter is easy. Manufac- 
tured by Success Manufacturing Company, (iloucester, 
Mass." 

GAS STOVE ACCESSORIES. 

Burning gas in an open flame is extravagant and un- 
sanitary, whether it is done either with a gas range or a 
gas plate. Where gas is burned for illuminating pur- 
poses, globes, chimneys and mantles are provided not 
only for radiating or diffusing tlie light, but to conserve 
the gas by burning it economically. It is just as neces- 
sary to regulate the amount of air — oxygen — furnished 
to the burning gas as it is when coal or wood is burned 
in the kitchen range. Too much air allowed to come 
into contact with the burning gas, either when used for 
cooking or lighting purposes, produces incomplete and, 
therefore, improper combustion or burning, and is waste- 
ful in the extreme. 

When wood or fuel is burned in a bonfire in the out- 
side air, the heat is wasted— dissipated — because it is 



90 'I'EJE KITC^IH'BN FITRE 

unconfined and the quantity of air uncontrolled. In a 
less degree when wood, coal, natural gas or other fuel is 
burned in an open fireplace, the heat is mostly wasted 
because it is unconfined and the supply of air not regu- 
lated. If the wick of a kerosene lamp be ignited and 
allowed to burn without a globe or chimney the light is 
unsatisfactory, smoke is produced, and the air in the 
room is soon polluted with the waste products of its 
burning, all because too much air is brought into con- 
tact with the burning oil. Several devices have come 
into public use whose purpose it is to prevent an unlim- 
ited quantity of air from coming into contact with the 
gas burner in a range and also to concentrate the heat 
so it may be utilized instead of being allowed to escape 
by diffusion through the atmosphere of the kitchen. 
These devices are scientifically constructed and fit over 
and around the gas burners of the range. Their effect 
is to promote better burning of the gas fuel and to so 
concentrate the heat that a much smaller quantity of gas 
is necessary for cooking purposes. 

THE ECONOMIC TOP. 

This top placed over the burners of a gas range makes 
it possible to use four kettles at one time if two burners 
are used, while with one burner three kettles may be 
used. Cooking and ironing may be done at the same 
time. It saves largely in gas consumption, burns it in 
a sanitary manner and gives greater general efiiciency 
to the gas range. 



FTOW TO RiTTlsr IT 



91 




It is approved by Good Housekeeping Jnstitute as fol- 
lows: 

"A solid iron top made to fit over the entire top of the 
ordinary open gas stove. There are four lids and a 
damper in the back for creating draft. This makes it 
possible for heat to be distributed as in the ordinary 
coal range, so that slow cooking may be accomplished 
and dishes kept warm. Cooking is done with less ex- 
penditure of gas. Made by the Gas Stove Improvement 
Company, Boston, Mass." 

THE VULCAN TOASTER. 

This excellent device can be used on any stove and 
toasts four slices of bread at one time in two minutes. 
The gas flame cannot come in contact with the bread, 
and the toasting is therefore hygienic. Bread is toasted 
evenly without burning. 




9^ THE KITOHE'N FIRE 

Good Housekeeping Institute says "The Vulcan 
Toaster is designed to use on a gas stove and consists of 
a flat piece of sheet iron which rests on the stove. The 
toaster is made double, having an inner perforated cone 
within a square perforated heat radiator. This inner 
cone being directly over the flame becomes red hot and 
toasting is done with rapidity. Manufactured by Wm. 
H. Crane Company, New York City." 

THE VULCAN CAKE GRIDDLE. 

Another very satisfactory device is the Vulcan Cake 
Griddle on which four cakes may be cooked at one time. 
The heat deflector in the griddle distributes the gas 
flames so that the cakes are cooked equally as well at the 
extreme edge of the griddle as at the center. This is a 
device both economical and hygienic. 




By Good Housekeeping Institute : 

''This is a griddle designed for use on a gas stove. 
The griddle is round, having a sheet iron side and steel 
top which is eleven and one-half inches in diameter. 
Underneath this top is a perforated inverted cone which 
distributes the gas evenly over the entire cooking top. 
Manufactured by William H. Crane Company, New 
York City." 



HOW TO 'RUN IT 93 

VULCAN WAFFLE IRON. 

The ordinary Waffle Iron used on a coal range cannot 
be used successfully on a gas range. The Vulcan Waffle 
Iron has been constructed for that purpose and fully 
meets over the top burners of the gas range in such a 
manner that the heat is centered on the soft iron within 
which the waffle lies. It can be turned without being 
removed from the stove and the heat is so evenly dis- 
tributed that the edges of the waffle brown as quickly 
as the middle. 




Gas is saved because the heat is properly concentrated 
and it is most convenient to operate because of the sim- 
plicity of its construction. 

The improved cooking which results is the best evi- 
dence that the article meets the requirements of the most 
exacting cook. 

Made by W^illiani H. Crane Company, New York City. 

THE LADY ELGIN OVEN. 

This is a very valuable accessory to any gas plate or 
gas range, both for its convenience and its gas saving 
quality. It is quite possible to save one-half the gas 
used for baking, and it is entirely hygienic. 



94 



THE KUTCOEiBIN OBTTHB 




By Good Housekeeping Institute: 

"The Lady Elgin Oven, which has a glass door, is 
twelve and one-half inches square and made of highly 
polished blue steel. It is lined throughout, back, ends 
top, and has a V-shaped flame spreader, asbestos lined. 
The door, which is supported by rods when open is 
eleven and a quarter inches wide and nine and a quarter 
inches high. The glass drop door permits the food to be 
seen in the process of cooking without opening the door. 
The oven is especially designed for use on the top burner 
of a gas stove and is suitable for baking bread, puddings, 
cakes, pies, biscuits, potatoes, or for roasting of poultry 
and meats. It is well adapted for paper bag cooking. 
Manufactured by Kimball-Dietrich Hardware Company, 
Elgin, 111." 



SAFETY GAS STOVE LIGHTER. 

This device is a great convenience for lighting gas in 
stoves, for it avoids the danger of setting fire to women's 
clothing, the unsightly scratch marks from striking 
matches, the disagreeable and unhealthful odor of burn- 



HOW TO rRim IT 



95 



ing sulphur and the nuisance of burnt matches. It is 
also made in different forms for the convenient lighting 
of gas ovens, store window lights and other general uses. 




THE SAFETY LIGHTER. 





Of) 



THE KITC'HiEN FTRE 



ROUND FILE POPULAR. 

Good Housekeepinor Institute approves in the following 
description: 

''This is operated by turning on the gas, placing the 
lighter over the burner and pressing down on the handle 
quickly. The spark is produced on the principle of the 
old-ifashioned flint and the device is simple and easily 
manipulated. An inverted cone prevents gas from burn- 
ing hands or fingers. Made by the Gas Safety Lighter 
Company, Haverhill, Mass." 



THE ANDROCK OVEN. 





The Androck ( )ven is designed for use on ti)p of all 
kinds of stoves, but is especially recommended when 
used with gas. gasoline or kerosene stoves. 

When the cover is lifted the baking is in plain sight. 

It is also used to concentrate the heat on three sad 
irons so that the flame can be turned low and the room 
will be cool. The Androck Oven is a very useful article 



HOW TO RUN IT 



97 



and its use results in a large saving of gas. It is manu- 
factured by The Andrew Wire and Iron Works, Rock- 
ford, 111. 



COKE BURNER 




The Coke Burner can be used separately or in con- 
nection with any gas range, and is made to Intrn coke, 
wood, coal, rubbish and garbage. It can ])e used for 
heating water in the kitchen boiler and to heat the room. 

The illustration shows the Coke Burner in connec- 
tion with Gas Range and is manufactured l)y American 
Stove Company, Cleveland, Ohio. 



INDEX 



Accessories — Coal Stoves 11 — 31 

Accessories SS — S^ 

Accessories — Gas Stoves 89 — 98 

Air 12—59 

Air — Composition of 14 

Air — Nitrogen Principal Constituent 2-5 

Air — Nitrogen Dilutes 25 

Air — Proportion of to Carbon 53 

Air — Super-heated 56^ — 58 

Anthracite Cost Increasing 52 

Anthracite — Supply Diminishing 21 

Anthracite — Value as Fuel l!* — -0 

Ash : . : 1!> 

Ash Sifter 88—80 

Baking, Directions for 72 

Bathroom Heating 81 — 82 

Bituminous Coal Analysis 19 — 65 

Bituminous Coal, Coke from 19 

Bituminous Coal, Deposits of 19 

Burning Fuel Properly 46 

Burning Illuminating Gas 76 

Briquettes, Anthracite 20 

Briquettes, Value as Fuel 21 

Carbon 8—16 

Carbon Dioxide Gas 42 — 55 

Carbon in Coal . .* 18 — 66 

Carbon in Wood 16 

Carbon Monoxide Gas 42 — 31 

Carbon Monoxide, How to Burn 42 — 55 

Chemistry of Combustion 14 

Chimney 10 — 34 

Chimney, Construction of 35 

Chimney, Flues of 35 

Chimney, Importance of 35 

Chimney Smoky, Prevention of 36 

Chimney, Unknown to Ancients 34 

Clinkers, How Formed 7o 

Clothing, a Necessity of Life 21 — 22 

Coal, Anthracite 18 — 20 

Coal, Bituminous 19 — 65 

Coal, Bituminous Analysis 19 — 66 

Coal, Daily Consumption of 75 — 76 

Coal Fire, Starting of 69 

Coal Gas, Danger of 46 — 82 

Coal Gas, How to Burn <6 — 82 

Coal Gas in Soft Coal 47 — 48 

Coal Gas Poisoning, Symptoms of 47 

Coal, Kinds of 64 — 65 

Coke, How Produced 18 

Coke for Domestic Use 1"^ 

Combustion a Chemical Process 15 

Combustion, Complete 41 

Combustion Fuel oS 

Combustion Fuel When First Understood 14 

Combustion, Incomplete 49 

Combustion, Oxygen a Supporter of 24 

Cook and Cooking 15 

Control of Fire 15 



Dampers 37 — 54 

Dampers, Experiments With 40 — 68 

Dampers, Kinds of 37 — 39 

Dampers, Smokepipe the Best .~. 40 

Dampers, Smokepipe, Why to Be Used 74 — 75 

Dampers, Use of 37 — 68 

Draft, Cause of Weak 36 — 37 

Draft, Experiment with 67 — 68 

Draft, How to Increase 36 

Draft, How to Prevent Down 36 

Draft, Nitrogen Assists 25 

Draft, What It Is 34 

Druggist 15 

Directions for Fuel Burning 67 — 73 

Earth, Many Elements in 7 

Economy of Fuel 21 — 23 

Economy in Necessities of Life 21 — 22 

Elements 7 

Elements, Mixture and Compound of 7 — ^S 

Elements, Oxygen Most Abundant 24 

Experiments with Dampers 67 — 68 

Experiments with Drafts 67 — 68 

Fire, Artificial 13 

Fire, Control of 52 

Fire, Origin of 13 

Fire, Overnight 71 

Fire, Proper Attention to 62 — m 

Fire, Starting Coal 69 

Fire, Starting Coke 70 

Fire, Starting Wood 69 

Fire, Why Is It Hot 8 

Flame, What It Is 7 

Food, a Necessity of Life 21 

Food, Economy of 21 — 22 

Franklin, Benjamin , 2" 

Franklin, an Inventor 27 — 28 

Franklin, a Stove Manufacturer 29 

Franklin Stove, the 27 

Fuel 8 — 16 

Fuel Burning 9 — 52 

Fuel Burning, Directions for 67 

Fuel Economy 21 — 22 

Fuel, Hydrogen Found in All 26 

Fuel, Hydrogen the Best 26 

Fuel Saving, Conditions for 62 

Fuel Waste 10 — 21 

Gas 46 

Gas Apparatus for Burning 4!> 

Gas, Carbonic Acid 42—55 

Gas, Carbonic Oxide 42 — Si) 

Gas, Coal a Blood Poison 46 — 49 

Gas, Coal Escape from Stove 41 — 4S 

Gas Combustible 42 

Gas, Fuel Gas Not Understood 41 

Gas, Fuel Gas. How Generated 55 — 56 

Gas, Illuminating, as Fuel 42 — 49 

Gas Incombustible 42 

Gas Pipes, Leaky 83 

Gas Range 45" — So 

Gas Range, Keeping Clean 82 — S3 

Gas, Sewer 4i6 

Gas, Volatile 18 — 19 

Gas, Water 42 — i9 

Grate 31 — 62 

Greeks 7 



Heat 52—53 

Heat Units ry9 — 60 

Heater. Water Gas , 81 

Heroes of Invention 7 

Hood 79 

HouseAvife Practices Chemistry 15 

Hydrogen 7 — 26 

Hydrogen Best Fuel 26 

Hydrogen in All Fuels 20 

Hydrogen I^ightest Substance 26 

Ignition 14 

Kitchen a Laboratory 15 

Kitchen Fire In 

Light. Its Supply and Control 12 

Lignite, Deposits of ]9 

Lignite. Value as Fuel 18 

Laboratory 1.5 

Nation The, Quotation from 52 

Nitrogen 7 — 2.5 

Nitrogen Produces Draft 2.5 

Nitrogen Dilutes Air 25 

Oxygen 7 — 5^ 

Oxygen, Air the Source of 24 

Oxygen, Its Importance 24 

Oxygen. Proportion of Air in 24 

Oxygen, Super-heated . .58 

Oxygen. Supporter of Combustion 24 

Peat, Deposits of 17 

Poison Coal Gas 47 — 50 

Preface 4 

Range. Cabinet Dockash .^2 

Range Called Cooking Stove 29 

Range Coal, Out of Order 42 

Range, Gas 51 — 81 

Range, Gas, Keeping Clean S2 — 88 

Safety 46 

Sanitation 4fi — '^1 

Smoke 4^—iS 

Smoke, Abatement of 44 — if> 

Smoke, Its Bad Effect . 4?. — 45 

Smoke Pipe 10 — 6S 

Smoke Pipe Damper 6?, — 7.5 

Smoke, Prohibition of 4?> 

Smoke Waste 4-3 

Soot 4R 

Stoves 27 — fi2 

Stoves. Accessories 11 

Stoves as Machines .50 — 66 

Stoves, Construction of 27 — .^l 

Stoves, Franklin 27 

Stoves, Gas 7!^ — SO 

Stoves, Kinds of .30 

Stoves First Used 27 

Stoves. Poor Condition 42 

Super-heated Oxygen 58 

Thermometer 52 

Vacuum 00 

Volatile Gas 18—45 

Waste of Fuel 10 

Water 12 

Water, Composition of 24 

Wood 04 

Wood. Kinds of 16 

Wood Fires, Starting 09 — 70 

Wood, Proportion of Carbon in 16 

Wood Stoves 27 

Wood Supply Diminishing 17 



lOV 7 1912 



